On the positive side, Nakia Smith was not shot to death by Chicago cops for entering a police department with a loaded gun in his pocket.
But on the negative side, the 51-year-old Black man who volunteers to reduce gun violence in his community ended up spending several months in jail – when all he was trying to do was turn the gun in to the police to keep it off the streets.
“My intention was to take my jacket off and hand it to them,” he told ABC 7 News.
“The whole police station panicked, and I got 10 guns aimed at me,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times.
‘God Led Me in There’
The problem is Smith is a felon who, upon his release from prison in 2013, began volunteering to reduce gun violence on the Far Southside of Chicago, a poverty-stricken subregion of the city that is predominantly Black.
But with a felony on his record, Smith is not allowed to possess guns, which is why police arrested him that day in March 2023.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports he spent seven months in jail before he was released in January 2024 after paying the $15,000 bond, although that would add up to ten months.
He then spent more than two years in home confinement wearing an ankle monitor before his trial date, which was scheduled for Aug. 10, where he was facing up to 30 years in prison.
He struck a plea deal, pleading guilty to a reduced felony of aggravated/unlawful possession of a weapon without a concealed-carry license.
Cook County Judge Natosha Toller sentenced him to one year with credit for time served.
“I know I did the right thing,” Smith said the week before entering the plea deal.
“God led me in there.”
‘No Questions Asked’
Aside from volunteering with Chicago CRED, a nonprofit working to reduce gun violence, Smith has worked as a self-employed demolition worker since his release from prison.
In March 2023, he said a woman from Atlanta hired his company to clean out belongings from her late father’s home in Chicago.
Smith said one of his workers found the gun, a loaded .45-caliber, and placed it in his truck, where he later found it. He said he called the woman who hired him but received no answer.
Smith then called 331, Chicago’s non-emergency and information line, who told him he could drop the gun off at a police department.
Chicago police have a “gun turn-in program” where people can turn in guns with “no questions asked” in exchange for a $100 gift card, according to their website.
“The most important thing is that we get the gun off the streets,” states a page on the Chicago police website.
“No one will ask any questions about you or the gun. You will not have to provide any personal information.”
Smith told local media he walked into the station with the gun in his jacket pocket, asking for the watch commander. When an officer inquired why he wanted to see the watch commander, he told the officer he was trying to turn in a gun.
“Give me your ID,” she responded. “Freeze!”
About ten officers quickly pointed their guns at him, and he was handcuffed and jailed. And then they wrote up a completely different narrative than the one he provided.
However, not a single surveillance or bodycam video has been released to prove the police version of events.
“Man, I was turning a gun in,” he told the judge the following morning.
Contradictory Police Narrative
Chicago police claim he walked in reeking of alcohol and became belligerent when he was unable to speak to the watch commander, according to CWB Chicago.
Police also claim he told officers they “would have to take the firearm off him,” lowering his hands from the desk, prosecutors told the judge, basing their allegations on police reports.
They then surrounded him and removed the gun from his pocket, then discovered he was a felon, forbidden from carrying firearms.
The cops also claim after he had been handcuffed he told them he was not there to turn in the gun and wanted his gun back.
However, they also claim he wanted to see the watch commander about the $100 gift card.
The judge believed the police narrative and ordered him jailed with bail set at $150,000, meaning he would have to pay ten percent of that which he could not afford.
Smith denied the police narrative, saying he made no mention of the $100 gift card which is only available during scheduled gun turn-in events.
He said he initially rejected a plea deal where he would have served two years in prison, believing a jury will side with him.
“All we can do is convince them that, ‘Hey, he made the right decision, even though he broke the law,’” he told local media.
‘Complete Travesty’
Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who runs CRED, the nonprofit where Smith volunteers, was outraged over the arrest.
“It’s crazy,” Duncan told local media. “If I didn’t know his character, I wouldn’t be involved. But it seems like a complete, complete travesty.”
Duncan, who founded CRED in 2016, said that Smith has stayed out of trouble since his release from prison, working hard to reduce violence in the community.
Smith’s prior criminal history includes burglary, stolen-vehicle, drug, and firearm-possession convictions but he has had no arrests since his release in 2013.
“He’s not just a citizen,” Duncan said. “He’s fighting for good.”
Duncan was also concerned the arrest would deter other citizens from turning in guns, believing in the “no questions asked” policy which apparently is not true.
“We’re most concerned about the travesty or injustice to him,” he said. “But the larger message is, since the community already doesn’t trust the police, they’re already skeptical.”
“They’re going to be like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that. I know what happened to Nakia. No way I’m going to put myself in that position.’ Why would anybody risk their own freedom to turn in a gun?”
