By Candice Martin, DCRR Racing Media

Antioch, CA…July 8…Troy Foulger of Oakley won the 25 lap IMCA Modified Main Event Saturday night at Antioch Speedway. This was his third win of the season in the Bowers Motorsports Modified as he maintains the point lead in that division. He also won the IMCA Stock Car race earlier in the evening. This was the Eighth Annual Hetrick Memorial race, and this was his second win in that event, paying $1,250 on this occasion.

Foulger drew the front row for the feature race, but Josh Combs of Roseville jumped into the early lead. Following a yellow flag for Gary Hetrick on Lap 2, Foulger bolted into the lead on the restart with Oakley’s Kellen Chadwick in tow. Bobby Hogge IV of Salinas settled into third and made an inside pass in Turn 4 on Lap 5 to take second from Chadwick. Foulger saw his lead erased by a Lap 9 yellow flag for Sean Wilson of Oakley. Foulger had to deal with multiple yellow flags over the next half-dozen laps, but he beat Hogge on each ensuing restart. Foulger was just too smooth during the final 10 laps and brought it home to a satisfying win. Hogge settled for second ahead of Chadwick, Nick DeCarla of Martinez and Andrew Pearce of Oakley.

Kenny Shrader of Pacheco picked up the win in the 20 lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. The win moved him into a tie with Jason Ryan Jr of Oakley for the point lead and was his third-straight win in this event. It also paid him $1,000.

Mark Garner of Antioch set the early pace ahead of Haley Gomez of Antioch. Gomez surrendered second to Shrader a lap later. A yellow flag waved for a Billy Garner spin in Turn 4 on Lap 7. Shrader took the lead from Mark Garner on the restart with Tommy Fraser of Antioch making a low pass in Turn 4 on Lap 9 for third. An outside pass on the bach stretch on Lap 12 put Fraser into second, but the tenacious Garner regained that position two laps later. Ryan moved up to battle Fraser for the third position, grabbing the spot on Lap 18, and Shrader brought it home a happy winner ahead of Mark Garner, Ryan, Fraser and Trevor Clymens of Brentwood.

Jacob Tuttle won the 25 lap Wingless Spec Sprint Main Event. The Oakley driver had picked up a win in the Ted Finkenbinder ownerd car during the County Fair, and he led every lap on this occasion in victory.

Dylan Newberry of Brentwood was an early second before being overtaken by Jarrett Soares of Gilroy with a Turn 2 pass on Lap 13. Moments later, Steve Bruno of Pittsburg got out of shape exiting Turn 4 and veered into the path of Anthony Snow of Wilton, resulting in Snow doing a cartwheel down the front straightaway. Snow was uninjured. Tuttle led the restart ahead of Soares and led the rest of the way in victory. Brentwood’s Bob Newberry ended up third, followed by Dylan Newberry of Brentwood and point leader James East of Oakley.

Troy Foulger won his sixth IMCA Stock Car Main Event. The point leader took the lead at the halfway point of the race and won by a wide margin.

Terry DeCarlo Jr of Martinez set the early pace ahead of Rio Vista’s Jason Robles and Foulger. Foulger got passed by Mitch Enos of Manteca with an inside move in Turn 4 of the seventh lap. However, Foulger stuck it up on the outside and made a high pass around Enos and Robles to claim second on Lap 8. Foulger closed in on DeCarlo very quickly and made a high pass in Turn 2 of the 11th circuit to grab the lead. Foulger stretched his advantage to a straightaway in victory with Robles beating DeCarlo in a near photo finish at the line for second. Enos of Manteca ended up fourth ahead of Scott Foster of Oakley.

Racing continues next Saturday night with the IMCA Sport Modifieds back in action along with the Pacific Coast General Engineering Hobby Stocks, IMCA Stock Cars, Print Club Mini Stocks and 600 Micro Sprints all in action. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.

Antioch Speedway Race Results – July 8, 2023

IMCA Modifieds

Heat Winners (8 laps)-Troy Foulger, Bobby Hogge IV. Main Event (25 laps)-Troy Foulger, Bobby Hogge IV, Kellen Chadwick, Nick DeCarlo, Andrew Pearce, Josh Combs, Randy Shafer, Jeff Browne, Bobby Motts Jr, Gary Hetrick.

IMCA Sport Modifieds 

Heat winners (8 laps)-Kenny Shrader, Jason Ryan Jr, Jeremy Hoff. Main Event (20 laps)-Kenny Shrader, Mark Garner, Jason Ryan Jr, Tommy Fraser, Trevor Clymens, Jacob Mallet Jr, Jeremy Hoff, Haley Gomez, Kelly Campanile, Tommy Clymens Jr.

Wingless Spec Sprints 

FT Jacob Tuttle 14.366. Heat Winners (8 laps)-Jacob Tuttle, Bob Newberry. Main Event (25 laps)-Jacob Tuttle, Jarrett Soares, Bob Newberry, Dylan Newberry, James East, Jeff Scotto, Roy Fisher, Nathan Johnson, David Johnson, Steve Maionchi.

IMCA Stock Cars 

Heat Winners (8 laps)-Mitch Enos. Main Event (20 laps)-Troy Foulger, Jason Robles, Terry DeCarlo Jr, Mitch Enos, Scott Foster, Dave Hill, Nick DeCarlo DNS.

By City of Antioch Recreation Department

Ahead of the heat wave this weekend, the Antioch Community Center and Nick Rodriguez Community Center are open from 12pm-8pm Saturday, July 15th and Sunday, July 16th as cooling centers when temperatures reach over 102 degrees.

The City of Antioch is committed to providing a safe, cool place for residents at the Antioch Community Center and the Nick Rodriguez Community Center. Residents without home air conditioning, or with health conditions made worse with extreme heat and poor air quality are encouraged to seek out the cooling centers.

During these periods of excessive heat drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.

Antioch Community Center: 4703 Lone Tree Way

Nick Rodriguez Community Center: 213 F Street

By National Weather Service Bay Area

Excessive Heat Watch for the interior Bay Area and Central Coast, from Friday into Sunday, July 15-17, 2023. High temperatures will range from the 90s to the mid-100s.

IMPACTS: Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat-related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS: The combination of warm nights and hot days will be most prevalent, Saturday and Sunday. In addition to the heat, individuals should be mindful of the elevated fire danger over the weekend, especially inland and at higher elevations where there will be little overnight relief from the marine layer.

Be prepared to drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. This is especially true during warm or hot weather when car interiors can reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.

Stay hydrated!

For more information visit National Weather Service Bay Area.

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.

For more information visit www.RelayForLife.org/TheDeltaCA.

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.

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.

The councilmembers know or at least should know better, and that the City must follow the Skelly Hearing disciplinary process and the investigation must be done in accordance with the California Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act.

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.

Deputy District Attorney Sophea Nop denied the request claiming “these records are exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act pursuant to GC (Government Code) §7923.6000(a) and §7927.705.”

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.

By City of Antioch Recreation Department

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!

For more information about the event and how to become a vendor, visit antiochca.gov/multicultural-day.