Police Asking for Help in Solving Monday Night Homicide

East Ridge police are asking for help from the public to apprehend the person responsible for a Monday evening homicide.

According to a department press release, officers were called to the 600 block of South Seminole Drive late Monday night on a “shots fired” call. When they arrived they found Antonio Smith, 25, of a Delong Street address in the driver’s seat of a Ford Explorer suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Officers started CPR on the victim and continued attempting to revive Smith until EMS arrived. Smith was taken to Erlanger hospital where he died.

According to a police department “pass along report” concerning the incident, Smith was a member of the Rollin’ 20 Bloods gang.

Chief Stan Allen said the investigation into the incident is continuing and asks that anyone who has information about the homicide to contact ERPD at 423-867-7516.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.