An Oakley woman is facing felony charges after allegedly ramming two Antioch police vehicles and injuring an officer during a chase that began with reports of erratic driving and ended with her car boxed in at a vacant Rite Aid parking lot on East 18th Street. Felicia Marie Jackson, 39, was taken into custody last Sunday following what police describe as a low-speed pursuit that started near the 1500 block of Yellowstone Drive.
According to the Antioch Herald, officers were dispatched after callers reported a white Volkswagen Tiguan being driven erratically, sideswiping another vehicle and nearly striking a pedestrian. When officers attempted a traffic stop, the driver allegedly failed to yield and instead drove into oncoming traffic lanes along Hargrove Street toward East 18th Street.
Police located the Volkswagen near Hillcrest Avenue and East 13th Street and deployed spike strips along East 18th Street, but the driver avoided them by turning into the parking lot of the former Rite Aid store at A Street and East 18th Street, the outlet reports. That property has sat vacant since Rite Aid listed the location for closure during the chain's nationwide bankruptcy proceedings in 2025, according to WNEP, leaving an open commercial lot where officers were able to attempt to box in the vehicle.
Officer Hurt as Suspect Allegedly Rammed Patrol Vehicle
Officers boxed in the Volkswagen inside the lot, but the report indicates Jackson then attempted to escape by intentionally ramming a patrol vehicle. One Antioch police officer sustained minor cuts from broken glass in the collision, the article notes. Two patrol vehicles were damaged in the incident, and the Volkswagen itself showed significant body damage consistent with multiple collisions, including two flat tires.
No other injuries were reported. Jackson was treated at a local hospital as a precaution before officers took her into custody, per the same account.
Multiple Charges Filed, Including Felony Counts
Jackson was charged with felony assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon under Penal Code Section 245(c), which carries a state prison sentence of three, four, or five years, according to Shouse Law Group. She also faces a felony charge of evading a peace officer while driving against traffic under Vehicle Code Section 2800.4, a wobbler offense that can bring up to three years in state prison or up to a year in county jail, along with fines between $1,000 and $10,000.
Additional misdemeanor charges include hit and run under Vehicle Code Section 20002, which carries up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine for leaving the scene of a property-damage collision; driving under the influence under Vehicle Code Section 23152(a); and resisting, delaying or obstructing a peace officer under Penal Code Section 148(a)(1), according to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office. Jackson was booked at the Martinez Detention Facility and is now held at the West County Detention Center on $75,000 bail, the sheriff's office says. She was previously arrested in January 2025 on a warrants-or-hold-only matter, according to localcrimenews.com.
Chase Unfolds Amid Staffing Strain and Days After Fatal Crash
The incident happened against a backdrop of significant strain on the Antioch Police Department. As of March 2026, the department operated with 84 sworn officers out of an authorized complement of 115, according to figures presented to local business leaders and reported by the Antioch Herald. The Antioch Police Officers Association said in January that sworn officers had been working without a labor contract since September 2025, operating at roughly 75% of authorized staffing with 10 positions frozen due to city budget constraints, per Contra Costa News.
Those pressures have pushed neighboring agencies to step in. In January 2025, the Oakley City Council voted unanimously to let Oakley police officers serve as force multipliers assisting Antioch during localized crime spikes and staffing shortages, according to Police1. Antioch also completed a policy overhaul under Department of Justice oversight in March 2026 that tightened previously more liberal vehicle pursuit rules, which may explain why officers pursued Jackson at low speed and relied on tactical containment in the parking lot rather than a high-speed chase.
The arrest also comes just two days after a 33-year-old woman was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash near the Hillcrest Avenue and Highway 4 interchange in Antioch, as Hoodline previously reported. That crash, occurring along the same general corridor, had already heightened local sensitivity around dangerous driving in the days before Jackson's arrest.
The Antioch Police Field Services Division made the incident information available, listing the case number as 2608230110. Open questions remain, including whether toxicology results will confirm impairment and when Jackson is scheduled for her initial court appearance in Contra Costa County Superior Court.
