Body camera footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting his partner last year was released Friday by a civilian oversight commission.
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Krystal Rivera, 36, a four-year veteran of the department, was shot and killed by officer Carlos Baker on June 5 as they pursued a suspect.
Graphic video from his bodycam shows Baker kick in an apartment door, spot another man with a firearm, and say, “Wait,” and “Oh,” as he falls back amid the sound of a single gunshot.
Rivera’s bodycam captures her running behind Baker as they chase after the suspect. When he reaches the top of the stairs, Baker can be seen in front of the apartment door as it opens. Rivera then drops to the ground.
After the gunshot is heard, Baker runs upstairs and yells, “Shots fired at the police,” and “Krystal, you good?” the video shows.
He can be heard telling a dispatcher that Rivera has been shot and requesting an ambulance and a SWAT team. He returns to Rivera’s side after 1 minute, 44 seconds. “Stay with me,” he says as he drags her body from the second floor to the first, where a back-up officer appears to arrive.
Three days after the shooting, Chicago police issued a statement saying that, “An officer discharged their weapon, fatally striking Chicago Police Department Officer Krystal Rivera.”
The shooting has been investigated by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability as an “unintentional discharge.”
Baker’s attorney, Timothy Grace, said in a statement Saturday that “The facts are clear that Officer Baker breached the door on that fateful night and was facing the lethal end of a rifle.”
“While moving to seek cover and unbeknownst to him, his weapon unintentionally discharged striking Krystal,” the statement said.
It added that multiple factors, including the officers’ heights, their positioning and the angle of the service weapon “created a unique, dynamic and deadly circumstance that could not be duplicated in a controlled environment.”
Baker was relieved of law enforcement powers in August, which typically means an officer has been stripped of their gun and badge — and no longer has authority to make an arrest, NBC Chicago reported. The outlet reported that the move was not related to the June 5 shooting. He has not been charged with any crime.
On Friday, the Chicago Police Department said it was thinking of Rivera’s family.
“These videos are difficult to watch, and we remind members of the public that there is an active Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) investigation, which CPD continues to cooperate with,” the department said in a video statement. “Due to this active investigation, we have no further comment.”
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Rivera’s family last year alleges that the Chicago Police Department knew Baker was reckless and posed a threat to his partner. It states that the two officers were in a romantic relationship until about a month before Rivera’s shooting death. The suit names Baker and the city of Chicago as defendants.
The suit states that Rivera complained about Baker’s job performance and had requested another partner. The suit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages of more than $50,000, states that Rivera ended their relationship because she discovered he was living with another woman, a claim Grace said was false.
Grace also said that it was not true that the partners had broken up about a month before Rivera’s death. “Their relationship was short and casual and had ended years ago,” Grace said, adding that at the time of the shooting they were “best friends.”
“A law suit has been filed and the pain is understandable but unfortunately misdirected,” Grace said in the statement.
In a statement made when the lawsuit was filed, lawyers for Rivera’s mother, Yolanda Rivera, alleged that Baker had a history of bad, consequential behavior on and off duty.
“If only multiple warning signs had been heeded and action taken to remove him as her partner or remove him from the force altogether,” they said. “Indeed, he never should have been a Chicago Police Officer from the beginning.”
Regarding his disciplinary record, Grace said Baker “has very little.”
A Chicago police spokesperson on Friday said the department could not comment on pending litigation.
The president of Chicago’s police union, John Catanzara, defended Baker, saying that Baker had “no nefarious intent” and “lost his balance.”
In a statement posted on YouTube, Catanzara says that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Baker believed the man with the firearm shot his partner and that he may be a continued danger.
He called Rivera’s death “one of the most tragic moments in this department’s history that I can remember.”
The suit states Baker “had been the only one to discharge a firearm,” which has not been disputed by police.
On Friday, Antonio M. Romanucci, who is representing Rivera’s mother in her lawsuit against the city, expressed his misgivings with the video release. He alleged that it was edited and not released in its entirety.
The civilian police accountability panel did not respond to request for comment Friday.
Romanucci said that his law firm would conduct a forensic analysis of the newly released video. His legal team has called for an independent investigation of the shooting.
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