Join us for this 24-hour event to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. We will have food, games, fun and a DJ! Blue Moonshine performs at 9:40 p.m.
It’s going to be a hot one …but we have misters, shade, and an indoor Survivors Area with gifts and much more. Dallas Ranch Middle School is located at 1401 Mt. Hamilton Drive in Antioch.
Angela Priscilla Fierro. Courtesy of Fierro-Ruiz family.
Police previously reported unborn baby did not survive; her mother claimed unborn baby was driver’s; says he forced his way into car, wants him arrested, but TRO may not have been served; she leaves behind a one-year old daughter; services scheduled, GoFundMe page set up.
By Allen D. Payton
7/13/23 UPDATE: In response to the questions sent to Antioch Police on Monday, July 10, 2023, according to APD Public Information Liaison Sgt. Price Kendall, “the young lady was not pregnant. As for your additional questions, they all pertain to the investigation, which is still ongoing.”
In an earlier report, police claimed the unborn baby did not survive.
Asked if the driver had been arrested and about the restraining order, Kendall said, “No. Orders have to be served. What was going on beforehand (inside Fierro’s vehicle) is part of the investigation. All parties have been contacted in the investigation.”
ORIGINAL STORY: The family of the young, pregnant woman who, along with her unborn baby, died during a crash in Antioch, last Thursday, July 6, 2023, want her estranged, ex-boyfriend who was driving the car, arrested.
Fierro’s friend who was a passenger in the car, sustained a broken arm and leg in the crash and was still in the hospital as of Monday morning, Ruiz shared. Sanchez-Salinas “also went to the hospital with a broken arm but is out and wasn’t arrested,” she said.
According to the Antioch Police, the driver of the other vehicle suffered chest pain and was transported to an area hospital for treatment. (See related article)
“My daughter was in the car with her friend and ex-boyfriend who she had a restraining order against,” Ruiz explained. “They were at a park, and he forced himself into the car and pushed her into the passenger side from the driver’s seat so he could drive the car. The friend said both women started hitting him to try and get him out of the car. He said he wasn’t going to stop until he ran out of gas.”
“That’s why Angela wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. She was fighting for her life,” her sister Marisela Madrigal stated.
Asked how they knew that information, Ruiz and Madrigal said they had spoken to the friend who was the other passenger.
Ruiz said she had previously found a tracking device in Fierro’s car which is how they believe Sanchez-Salinas located her.
“Angela told me that she could hear it beeping,” Ruiz stated. That means he was checking for her location.
Fierro’s car was a black Jeep that rolled over onto its top in the collision.
“He caused it for sure. He should have been locked up,” Ruiz stated. “I don’t know why he’s walking around here, free. I have no contact with him.”
A candlelight vigil was held for Fierro and her unborn baby on Friday night, July 7th.
“He had the balls to go to where my daughter’s candlelight vigil was held,” Ruiz exclaimed.
Candles, flowers and a banner from the vigil for Angela Priscilla Fierro and her unborn baby held Friday, July 7, 2023, mark the location near the site of the fatal collision. LLA means “Long Live Angela”. Photo courtesy of Marisal Madrigal.
Sanchez-Salinas showed up after everyone had left and tagged the fence and sidewalk with spray paint next to the display writing, “My ride or die forever – Alex” and “LLA Angie’s World”, meaning Long Live Angie, her family friend, Adrianna Osuna shared.
The family was not happy with Sanchez-Salinas doing that.
“He just won’t stop hurting us,” Madrigal added.
“It’s a disgrace. It’s like he’s saying he got away with what he did,” Ruiz stated. “Basically making fun of us.”
“Taunting the family and not letting them mourn in peace,” said another relative who is helping the family but chose to not be identified.
Asked if she had spoken with the police, Ruiz said, “The police have not spoken to me. They were supposed to call me back yesterday at 12 but never did. They spoke to Angela’s father and told him they can release her body today or tomorrow.”
Fierro, who lived with her mother, had been having problems with Sanchez-Salinas for the past four-to-five months, Ruiz stated.
The relative said Ruiz was instructed by her attorney to get a copy of the incident report of how many times police were called to Ruiz’s and Fierro’s home regarding Sanchez-Salinas “who would just show up there randomly. He went there on July 4th and 5th but had been there previously, too. It was several times, but we won’t know how many until we get the report.” That could take up to 10 days.
The EPO was granted automatically by the court due to the multiple times Sanchez-Salinas had shown up at the home after their relationship ended in mid-May. They had been dating for less than a year.
About Angela
Fierro was born on October 18, 2002, at Kaiser Walnut Creek and was raised in Antioch, her mother shared. She graduated from Prospects High School. Fierro “was 20 years old and worked at Walmart handling the online orders,” Ruiz continued. “She was into old cars, fast cars and fashion. She liked to show she was a princess.”
Asked how far along Fierro was in her pregnancy the mother and grandmother said, “She just told me she was pregnant.”
“She wanted to be a veterinarian and was going to start taking classes and asked if I could watch her baby,” Ruiz shared. Sanchez-Salinas is not the father of Fierro’s one-year old daughter who is “now with her father.”
Private family services have been scheduled and a GoFundMe page has been set up to cover funeral costs and to support her baby, which reads, “Angela was a young and beautiful mother expecting her second child, who was unfortunately pronounced dead on the scene alongside her unborn child after a terrible car accident on July 6th 2023. Angela was a loving mother, daughter, and granddaughter who left an empty space in the hearts of all her family and friends. Please help lay her to rest. Any donation helps and will be appreciated.”
Efforts to reach Sanchez-Salinas and Antioch Police Officer Blumberg who is handling the case were unsuccessful prior to publication time. Questions were emailed to Blumberg Monday afternoon asking about the investigation including if Sanchez-Salinas had been arrested and if not, why due to the violation of the protective order. But no response was received. An effort to reach the friend, whose name is being withheld, by phone was also unsuccessful. Please check back for any updates to this report.
Those who merely received the offensive texts need to be protecting us; DA must release all pages of texts
By Allen D. Payton
It’s time the Antioch Police officers caught up in the scandal of racist and other offensive texts who merely received but didn’t send any of the texts got back to work. With 35 sworn officers currently on paid administrative leave in both the FBI and DA investigation from last year and those included in the text scandal this year, that’s more than one-third of the current officers on the force. The understaffing is putting us all at risk. In addition, for the purpose of transparency, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office needs to release all pages of the texts so the public can read what was sent and the context.
As of June 12th, there were 98 sworn officers on staff with the department out of 115 authorized in the budget, and 49 on full duty. That’s 0.43 officers per 1,000 on duty. The goal has been 1.2 officers per 1,000 for the past 25 years, which has never been achieved. Minimally we should have 1.0 officers per 1,000 population.
The officers in the text scandal have been on leave for about three months and the investigation has been under way for almost two months – leaving our community less protected and less safe.
Those officers who didn’t send any of the offensive texts, but merely received them and didn’t respond – which is most of them – should have been interviewed, first during the investigation. Unless other information has been discovered during the process, those officers need to be cleared and put back to work protecting Antioch residents and businesses.
For example, as previously reported, on Independence Day, Tuesday, July 4th it took officers an hour to respond to a dangerous sideshow at the intersection of Lone Tree Way and Blue Rock Drive/Golf Course Road because those on duty were dealing with two shootings on the other side of town. In addition, according to a Con Fire spokesman, an ambulance transporting someone to a local hospital had to be diverted around the sideshow. Fortunately, it didn’t have an impact on the patient. But minutes can make a difference in saving someone’s life.
All 35 officers should not be fired, as Mayor Lamar Thorpe twice wrote should happen immediately, first on May 19 then again on June 12, Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker wrote on May 18 and other members of the public have called for. That’s irresponsible and dangerous for our city with a population of over 115,000 residents. Besides, the council members have no say in which officer will or won’t be fired and it’s out of their area of responsibility to call for such a thing, and merely pandering to the public and grandstanding. Frankly, the council members’ calls for the termination of all officers involved could serve to undermine the effort to terminate some of the officers and give them a legal argument that it was done due to political pressure.
As the East Bay Times’ Editorial Board wrote, “they are entitled to due process. Not all of them have equal culpability. And if their rights are not respected, the city risks undermining the ongoing criminal and internal affairs investigations into their behavior, which would set back the quest for racial justice. Which is why City Council members, especially Mayor Lamar Thorpe, need to step back and let investigators do their work — and stop making politically charged comments that could jeopardize the outcome.”
As I wrote in April, those in APD leadership who received the texts, as a form of discipline for not paying attention to what the officers they were in charge of were doing, need to be demoted. But they should still be put back to work, also.
The focus of the council, police department and investigators must be two-fold: one, terminating and/or disciplining the guilty officers, and two, keeping Antioch safe.
DA Must Release All Pages of Texts
It’s also time the DA’s office released all the pages of the texts to clear up the claims that the the two reports by the D.A. Office’s Inspector Wallace were “misleading and distorted” according to the APOA’s attorney, and the texts included were cherry picked and edited, so the public can see the context in which they were all written. (See related articles here and here)
One text message specifically in question is the following: On 04/24/2020, at 5:49 p.m., APD Sgt. Josh Evans text APD Officer Amiri, “I’ll bury that n****r in my fields.” APD Officer Amiri laughed at the above comment.
A Public Records Act request by this news organization was made on April 27 and denied on May 2.
According to law.justia.com, the first section referenced “does not require the disclosure of records of complaints to, or investigations conducted by, or records of intelligence information or security procedures of, the office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, the Office of Emergency Services and any state or local police agency, or any investigatory or security files compiled by any other state or local police agency, or any investigatory or security files compiled by any other state or local agency for correctional, law enforcement, or licensing purposes.” The second section referenced “does not require disclosure of records, the disclosure of which is exempted or prohibited pursuant to federal or state law, including, but not limited to, provisions of the Evidence Code relating to privilege.”
Nop was informed that those close to Sgt. Evans have said that his text was taken out of context and was in response to a joke about another officer being with Evans’ wife in their yard and Evans was referring to that make believe officer who doesn’t actually exist.
She was then asked to at least provide the complete text exchange between Amiri and Evans prior to that message which was included in the first report.
Nop was asked via email, “How can the public know the context of some of the messages – which officers and others are claiming were taken out of context – if the complete text message exchanges are not provided?” She did not respond.
While I don’t believe it will change much regarding the outcome for the five or six officers who sent the offensive texts and are being sued, for the purpose of transparency, all the texts in their original form must be released.
All pages of the texts are expected to be made available to attorneys representing the officers during the discovery phase of the lawsuit. Perhaps at that time they will also be made available to this and other news organizations for the public to read.
In partnership with Bay Area Backyard Movement, the City of Antioch Recreation Department is excited to present our second Multicultural Day Festival! Highlighting cultural diversity and community engagement, this event features live performances, local vendors, a kid’s zone and much more for all to enjoy. You won’t want to miss this!
The damaged ATV and car involved in the fatal collision in Antioch Saturday night, July 8, 2023. All photos by Allen D. Payton
19-year-old driver arrested after she and passengers left the scene, police say alcohol is suspected factor; bail set at $100K; victim ID’d
By Allen D. Payton
A car being driven the wrong way on Deer Valley Road struck an off-road all-terrain vehicle (ATV) taking the life of the male driver Saturday night, July 8, 2023. A witness said the car was driving the wrong direction in the fast southbound lane when it struck the ATV. The incident occurred between Wildflower Drive and Carpinteria Drive shortly before 9:30 p.m.
The driver of the ATV, a 51-year-old African American man, was ejected and landed about 100 feet from his vehicle. His body was down in the southbound fast lane. When emergency personnel from Con Fire and the Antioch Police Department arrived, they ran to him and administered CPR.
A police officer later reported that the man was driving without lights or a helmet at the time of the collision and died at the scene.
The driver of the car left the scene, one witness said. She said she and her husband were at the stoplight at the Carpinteria Drive intersection in the inside northbound lane of Deer Valley Road and saw the car turn into the southbound fast lane and driving the wrong way on Deer Valley Road. They witnessed the collision and heard the impact.
Traffic was backed up then blocked in both directions on Deer Valley Road.
At least one passenger was still in the back seat of the car when officers arrived and could be seen speaking with an officer.
Another witness said there were four females in the car and heard them say “we gotta get out of here”. An officer at the scene said one passenger was transported to the hospital and the other three in the car had been detained.
Assistant Chief Chris Bachman confirmed “it was only one person transported to the hospital.”
Members of the deceased man’s family, who live nearby, arrived at the scene soon after, were seeking information about the collision, and learned he had passed.
Sparks fly as a Con Fire crew cuts the hood of the car to reveal the engine from which smoke was emanating.
Con Fire then used a saw to cut the hood of the car and pried it back and smoke could be scene emanating from the engine.
The females from the car and others speak with APD officers while one of the females can be seen crying in the parking lot of a nearby business.
Later, the females from the car and others could be seen speaking with officers in the parking lot of nearby businesses and one of them could be seen and heard crying. Another of the females could be heard asking why she was included and saying, “I didn’t do anything.”
A few minutes later, three of the females, later identified as the driver and two passengers of the car, could be seen getting into the back of two police vehicles which then drove away.
The driver and two passengers from the car involved in the collision get into two APD vehicles in the parking lot of nearby businesses.
Traffic was blocked on Deer Valley Road in both directions between Carpinteria and Wildflower.
Antioch Police Provide Additional Details, Identify Victim
A press release by Sgt Rob Green of the Antioch Police Field Services Division was issued Sunday morning providing more details:
On July 8th, 2023, at about 9:27 PM, the Antioch Police Department Communications Center received calls of a two-vehicle head on collision in the area of Deer Valley Road and Wildflower Drive. Officers determined a vehicle driven by 19-year-old Tatiana Monet Bartlow (born 10-20-2003) drove the wrong way, northbound in the southbound lane of Deer Valley Road where she collided head on with a quad ATV driven by 51-year-old Jerry Hill. The impact caused Hill to be ejected from the ATV. Hill succumbed on scene to his injuries.
A 20-year-old female passenger in Bartlow’s vehicle sustained a head injury and was transported to an area hospital for treatment. Bartlow left the scene with two other passengers from the vehicle and was followed by witnesses who got the attention of arriving officers. Officers detained Bartlow and the two passengers a short distance away and was later transported to the Antioch Police Station.
APD Major Accident Investigation Team assumed control of the investigation. Alcohol is a suspected factor in this collision and Bartlow was arrested and sent to county jail. This investigation is ongoing, and we ask anyone with information to contact Sergeant Rob Green at 925-779-6864 or rgreen@antiochca.gov. You may also text an anonymous tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword ANTIOCH.
According to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Inmate Locator, Bartlow’s bail was set at $100,000.
Join us at Smith’s Landing Seafood Grill in Antioch tomorrow for our Sunday Session! It’s going to be a blast from 2PM to 5PM. We’re thrilled to have David Bustamante, a Bay Area musician, songwriter, and producer, along with Bobby Santos, performing a fusion of awesome songs from the 60’s & 70’s and pop Latin rock hits.
Don’t miss out on our weekend Happy Hour also happening on Sunday from 2PM to 5PM. See you there!
