Edmond Police Chief To Retire After Illustrious Career Spanning Nearly Half A Century

He's busted terrorists and crooked Congressmen. He was the face of the Federal government at the standoff in Waco. Friday, arguably Oklahoma's most accomplished lawman will take off his badge. News 9’s Kelly Ogle got his perspective from the inside on some of America's most notorious crimes.

“As soon as I saw the smoke starting to come up I knew all of a sudden they had launched a plan to start killing themselves in there," said Edmond Police Chief Bob Ricks.

Ricks calls it the most gut wrenching day of his long career.

"It hurts still to this day by everyone that was involved there. It changed lives. It hurt a lot of people personally and professionally,” he remembered.

Fifty-one days into the Waco standoff, the FBI moved in, but the Branch Davidians torched their own compound. 

“Everybody in there was just filled with tears, crying, because they had given their whole lives and dedicated and sacrificed to try and get this thing resolved peacefully,” Ricks said. “And then on top of it as I’m there at the scene, I get a call from headquarters and they said ‘Bob you gotta [sic] go do one more press conference’ and I said 'what do I tell them?' I’m looking at a building where 80 some people just perished and there's nothing left."

It wasn't at all where a young Bob Ricks thought life would take him. The retiring Edmond Police Chief, who was captain of the Baylor golf team, had multiple options when he graduated from Baylor Law. In 1969, he signed on with the FBI.

"I thought well it would be another way to serve my country," he said. “I'd spend three years and I’d go back and practice law. I always thought it would be a temporary situation."

However, 26 years later, the then Special Agent in Charge of Oklahoma would find himself standing in front of another smoldering mass murder scene. Ricks was in charge of the bombed out Murrah Building and the investigation, and formed a tight bond with Oklahoma City Fire and Police.

"I always say that was the FBI's finest hour," he said. “From that, grew out of what is known as the Oklahoma standard and I believe that the FBI and hopefully I had a small portion of that."

Because Ricks was so closely associated with Waco, some speculated, publicly, he was the reason McVeigh hit Oklahoma City. The theory was debunked and in the end, it was Rick's job to protect McVeigh from an Oswald situation as he called it.

"We surrounded him with FBI agents and local officials, so a bullet would have had to gone through one of them before they would have reached him," Ricks said.

He retired from the FBI after 26 years, but would go on to serve as Governor Keating's Secretary of Safety and Security, head of DPS and for the last 13 years Edmond Police Chief. 

"I've been blessed you know for what I was given the opportunity to do. I don't take any of that for granted," he said.

Ricks says in retirement, he plans to stay active in the community and play some golf.