Nakia Smith says he walked into a Far South Side police station to get a gun off the street.
Instead, he walked out in handcuffs.
Three years later, the 51-year-old anti-violence volunteer is set to go on trial Monday on gun charges that could send him to prison for decades.
Smith, a convicted felon, was arrested March 4, 2023, after officers found a loaded .45-caliber handgun in his coat pocket inside the Calumet District police station, 727 E. 111th St.
He says he was there to surrender the weapon.
Police say he was breaking the law because felons can’t possess guns.
Smith faces six to 30 years behind bars if convicted of the most serious charge, being an armed habitual criminal.
The case has stunned former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who now runs the Chicago CRED anti-violence group, where Smith volunteers.
“It’s crazy,” Duncan said. “If I didn’t know his character, I wouldn’t be involved. But it seems like a complete, complete travesty.”
Smith said he believed the Chicago Police Department’s gun turn-in program allowed people to surrender weapons anonymously and without fear of arrest.
He knew that, as a felon, he was barred from possessing a firearm. But he thought police and prosecutors would make an exception for someone trying to remove a gun from the street.
They didn’t.
Smith spent seven months in the Cook County Jail before posting $15,000 — 10% of the $150,000 bail set by a judge. He’s on electronic monitoring now.
Smith and police sharply disagree over what happened inside the station.
According to an arrest report, Smith approached the front desk and asked to speak with a supervisor but would not explain why.
He then said, “Y’all going to have to take this off of me,” and lowered his hands, the report said.
Officers, concerned he might be armed and intoxicated, asked whether he had a gun. Smith said he did, according to the report.
Police found the loaded handgun in his left coat pocket.
The report says Smith initially denied that he’d come to surrender the gun. He later said he wanted to speak with a watch commander “about the $100 gift cards” and had called the city’s 311 information line, according to the police.
Chicago’s gun turn-in program allows people to surrender unwanted firearms with “no questions asked” in exchange for a $100 Visa gift card.
But the gift cards are available only during scheduled gun turn-in events. The Calumet District station wasn’t hosting one when Smith arrived.
The city’s guidelines state that a person can surrender a gun at a police station at any time, or call 911 or 311, even when no turn-in event is underway.
Smith insists the police report gets the story wrong.
He said he owns a business that cleans out homes and he also operates three community gardens on the South Side.
In March 2023, he said, a woman from Atlanta hired his company to remove belongings from her late father’s home.
One of Smith’s workers took a handgun from a pile of possessions and hid it in Smith’s truck, he said.
Smith said he discovered the gun after stopping for lunch at Popeyes.
He tried to reach the woman who’d hired him but got no response. He then called 311 and was told he could take the gun to a church or police station, he said.
“I said, ‘Well, it’d be better for me to take it to the police because that’s showing integrity, you know what I’m saying?’” Smith recalled.
He said he put the gun in his coat pocket because he didn’t want to walk into a police station carrying it in his hand.
His plan, he said, was to ask for a supervisor and hand over the entire jacket.
But when he told a desk officer he wanted to surrender a gun, she yelled, “Freeze!”
“The whole police station panicked and I got 10 guns aimed at me,” Smith said.
He denied ever asking about the $100 gift cards.
Despite acknowledging that he possessed the gun, Smith believes a jury will understand why.
“All we can do is convince them that, ‘Hey, he made the right decision, even though he broke the law,’” he said.
Smith said he rejected a plea deal that would have required him to serve two years in prison.
“God is on my side,” he said. “God guided me inside that police station. God protected me when I had all these guns faced at me and God is gonna protect me at the end of the day because I saved a life” by surrendering the weapon.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office said “combating gun violence is a top priority.
“We make charging decisions based on our review of the evidence and the facts. The CCSAO is committed to prosecuting all cases while ensuring fairness, integrity and due process for everyone involved. We do not comment on the specifics of pending cases. In all cases, we consider mitigating factors to seek an appropriate outcome.”
Duncan said he learned of the case only a few weeks ago.
He said Smith has stayed out of trouble for years since completing a prison sentence for a felony drug conviction.
“He’s not just a citizen,” Duncan said. “He’s fighting for good. He’s helping to push the peace.”
Duncan warned that convicting Smith could discourage others from surrendering unwanted guns.
“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?”