Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
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Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On June fifth, twenty twenty five, thirty six year old
Speaker 2: Chicago Police officer Crystal Rivera was working patrol in the
Speaker 2: East Chatham neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. She was with
Speaker 2: her partner, officer Carlos Baker. Crystal had recently passed her
Speaker 2: four year anniversary with the Chicago Police Department.
Speaker 3: She loved her job.
Speaker 2: Kristel was a single mother to young daughter Isabella, and
Speaker 2: she had been working with Carlos for several years. They
Speaker 2: were both members of CPD's sixth District Tactical Team. That night,
Speaker 2: they were patrolling near the eighty two hundred block of
Speaker 2: South Drex Avenue. It was an ordinary night until about
Speaker 2: nine to fifty pm. That's when Carlos Baker and Crystal
Speaker 2: Rivera saw a man outside an apartment building on South
Speaker 2: Drex Avenue.
Speaker 3: The man would later.
Speaker 2: Be identified by police as Jalen Arnold. According to prosecutors,
Speaker 2: the officers believed that Jalen might be armed. They said
Speaker 2: he had an unusually large bulge under his jacket, something
Speaker 2: that appeared consistent with a firearm or a drum magazine.
Speaker 2: Carlos and Crystal approached Jalen, and Jalen ran, so they
Speaker 2: ran after him. These moments would later be captured on
Speaker 2: both Carlos and Crystal's body cameras.
Speaker 3: Yes, what is that?
Speaker 2: On the footage, the officers can be seen running up
Speaker 2: to the apartment door and yelling for Jalen to show
Speaker 2: them his hands. They appear to be buzzing different doors.
Speaker 2: You can hear someone yelling police in the background, and
Speaker 2: eventually it appears as though someone lets the officers in.
Speaker 2: Once the chase went into the apartment building, they ran
Speaker 2: up a flight of stairs toward a second four apartment.
Speaker 2: On the video, you can see Jalen in front of them,
Speaker 2: Carlos was behind him, and Crystal was behind Carlos. Both
Speaker 2: Carlos and Crystal had their guns drawn. This hallway was narrow,
Speaker 2: They were breathing hard, and then Carlos kicked in the door.
Speaker 2: After he kicked in the door, Carlos saw something behind
Speaker 2: that door. He fired a shot from his weapon, but
Speaker 2: it didn't hit the suspect.
Speaker 3: It hit Crystal.
Speaker 2: And what happened after that splits this case into two
Speaker 2: different timelines. The first one is Carlos Baker's timeline, because
Speaker 2: both he and his defenders say that everything relevant to
Speaker 2: this case happened in a matter of seconds in a
Speaker 2: narrow hallway during a dangerous pursuit with two armed men
Speaker 2: inside an apartment. But Crystal Rivera's family claims in a
Speaker 2: lawsuit that that timeline is too short. They say there's
Speaker 2: another timeline, one that is much longer, and one that
Speaker 2: started long before that fateful chase into the apartment building.
Speaker 2: Crystal's family claims that this timeline started years or with
Speaker 2: Carlos and Crystal. They say the two weren't just partners
Speaker 2: on the job, they were romantically involved, and they had
Speaker 2: recently gone through a painful breakup. Then not long after that,
Speaker 2: one of them ended up dead. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over
Speaker 2: the past eight years of making my true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
Speaker 2: as a small town where murder never happens. I have
Speaker 2: received hundreds of messages from people all around the country
Speaker 2: asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
Speaker 2: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
Speaker 2: you'd like me and my team to look into, you
Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
Speaker 2: Line at six seven eight seven four four six one
Speaker 2: four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six
Speaker 2: one four five, or you can send us a message
Speaker 2: on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
Speaker 2: According to Crystal's obituary, she began her training to join
Speaker 2: the police department when she was just eighteen years old.
Speaker 2: She considered going to join the army, but wanted to
Speaker 2: serve her community locally. After she joined the Chicago Police Department,
Speaker 2: she had dreams of becoming a forensic investigator, but Cristel
Speaker 2: was juggling a lot. She had a full time job,
Speaker 2: and she was taking care of her young daughter, Isabella, who,
Speaker 2: according to her family, was Cristel's whole world. Cristel was
Speaker 2: researching online classes to see if part time studying for
Speaker 2: forensics would be an option. Her family wrote in her
Speaker 2: obituary that she was known for her sense of humor
Speaker 2: and her passions, which included fashion and horses, and also
Speaker 2: staying physically fit. She always made time to go to
Speaker 2: the gym. The obituary read quote, Though she gave much
Speaker 2: to her work and goals, Cristel's number one priority was
Speaker 2: always her daughter, Isabella. Her daughter was the center of
Speaker 2: her world, and everything she did was with Isabella in mind.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: Christel loved her job, and her mom said though members
Speaker 2: of the family had worked in law enforcement, Cristel was
Speaker 2: the family's first female police officer, and on June second,
Speaker 2: twenty five, Crystal was working with Carlos Baker. Carlos was
Speaker 2: her partner, which in police work is more than just
Speaker 2: a work partner. This is someone you regularly have to
Speaker 2: trust with your life, and in Crystal and Carlos's case,
Speaker 2: this was an even more complicated dynamic because, according to
Speaker 2: Krystal's family. Carlos and Crystal had been in a long
Speaker 2: term relationship and had recently split. Crystal and Carlos were
Speaker 2: on the CPD's sixth District Tactical Team. The police Department
Speaker 2: in Chicago has twenty two of these Tactical Unit teams
Speaker 2: and they're charged with proactively dealing with crime. They often
Speaker 2: deploy in undercover vehicles or while wearing street clothes, and
Speaker 2: this is in an area that has quite a bit
Speaker 2: of violence and property crime. So, as we said before,
Speaker 2: Carlos and Crystal were pursuing Jalen. Bodycam footage has been
Speaker 2: released by Chicago's civilian Office of Police Accountability. This footage
Speaker 2: shows the chase from both Crystal and Carlos's perspectives. So
Speaker 2: let's start with timeline one, the short timeline, the one
Speaker 2: that Carlos Baker's attorney has focused on. This timeline starts
Speaker 2: with the chase, the apartment, the shot, and the two
Speaker 2: minutes that followed. This footage is chaotic, but in that
Speaker 2: body cam footage, Carlos is in the front and Crystal
Speaker 2: is behind him. You can see them moving through the
Speaker 2: stairwell toward the second four apartment. Both of them have
Speaker 2: their guns out. Carlos runs into an apartment at the
Speaker 2: end of the hallway. Then Crystal reaches the doorway. Carlos's
Speaker 2: footage shows him crouching and kicking in the door. If
Speaker 2: you freeze frame, Jalen is visible, you can see him
Speaker 2: jumping over a couch to hide. There was another man
Speaker 2: inside as well. This man was later identified as Adrian Rucker.
Speaker 2: According to the CPD, Adrian Rucker had an ar style
Speaker 2: long rifle which he allegedly pointed at Carlos, and then
Speaker 2: Carlos appears to spin around and you can hear one gunshot.
Speaker 3: Carlos fires.
Speaker 2: At the same time, Crystal's body camera captures the sound
Speaker 2: of the gunshot and a woman screaming. That woman was Crystal.
Speaker 2: Carlos's shot had not hit Jalen or Adrian. It hit
Speaker 2: his partner, Crystal Rivera. Crystal was lying in a pool
Speaker 2: of blood. She radioed in for assistance, but the dispatcher
Speaker 2: couldn't hear her, and because she was so badly hurt,
Speaker 2: she was unable to repeat that she needed help. Carlos
Speaker 2: Baker's firearm fired that single shot that killed Crystal Rivera.
Speaker 2: That part is not in dispute. What is disputed is
Speaker 2: how and why that shot was fired. Carlos Baker, through
Speaker 2: his attorney, has said this was an unintentional discharge of
Speaker 2: his firearm. His attorney has described it as a split
Speaker 2: second judgment call in a life or death situation. Prosecute
Speaker 2: have also described the shooting as accidental, and Carlos has
Speaker 2: not been charged with any crime in connection with this incident.
Speaker 2: But Crystal Rivera's family does not accept the idea that
Speaker 2: the word accident explains what happened, because they claim this
Speaker 2: shooting has to be understood in a larger context.
Speaker 3: But before we get to that.
Speaker 2: Second timeline, we have to stay inside the first one,
Speaker 2: because the first timeline does not end with a gunshot.
Speaker 2: It continues with what Carlos Baker did next. After firing
Speaker 2: that shot, Carlos ran up another flight of stairs. He
Speaker 2: radioed the police that shots were fired at police, and
Speaker 2: then he made a call for a ten.
Speaker 3: To one, an emergency call for assistance. Shot fire, tadline,
Speaker 3: shot police turn what you can hear him breathing heavily.
Speaker 2: Then about thirty seconds later, Carlos calls out to Crystal,
Speaker 2: asking Crystal you good.
Speaker 3: Crystal, We have an ambulance. Ambulance, No, I can't get
Speaker 3: my corner.
Speaker 2: After that, it's silence. Crystal does not answer. Then Carlos
Speaker 2: requests an ambulance. He says he can't get down to Crystal.
Speaker 2: According to the footage summary, Carlos starts back down the
Speaker 2: stairs again. Then he appears to hesitate and go back
Speaker 2: up the stairs. Then he asks for a swat team.
Speaker 2: Around two minutes after the shooting, Carlos goes back down
Speaker 2: the stairs. He reaches Crystal, who is lying motionless in
Speaker 2: a pool of blood.
Speaker 3: Second floor. Hurry on, Christal, hear me, hear me?
Speaker 2: All right, I heard the second floor.
Speaker 1: What's the second poor?
Speaker 2: The video shows Carlos pulling Crystal towards the stairs. He says,
Speaker 2: come on and stay with me, Chris, and then the
Speaker 2: other officers arrive on the scene. When they do, Carlos
Speaker 2: tells the other officers to get Crystal in the car
Speaker 2: and take her to the hospital. Crystal was taken to
Speaker 2: the hospital where she later died. So in timeline won
Speaker 2: there are really two key moments, the three seconds before
Speaker 2: the shot and the two minutes after it. Carlos, Baker's
Speaker 2: attorney says those first seconds are what matter most. He
Speaker 2: claims that Carlos was confronting a dangerous situation with two
Speaker 2: armed men inside the apartment. According to police, Jalen Arnold
Speaker 2: had a loaded handgun on him and Adrian Rucker was
Speaker 2: pointing an ar style long rifle at Carlos Baker when
Speaker 2: Carlos fired his weapon. According to police, Carlos's attorney has
Speaker 2: said when Adrian pointed that rifle at Carlos, Carlos stumbled.
Speaker 2: That's when he stepped back, and that is when this
Speaker 2: alleged accidental discharge happened. Carlos's attorney said Carlos was afraid
Speaker 2: for his life and that his actions on the video
Speaker 2: show that Carlos was acting within CPD policy. That the
Speaker 2: video proved Carlos did everything in his power and used
Speaker 2: his training to give aid to Crystal. The attorneys said
Speaker 2: people should not blame Carlos Baker, they should blame the
Speaker 2: two armed felons. The attorney says the reason Crystal died
Speaker 2: is because a person decided to run from the police
Speaker 2: with a loaded handgun and because another person allegedly pointed
Speaker 2: a rifle at officers. Jalen Arnold was later charged with
Speaker 2: armed violence, possession of a firearm by a repeat felon,
Speaker 2: and possession of cocaine. After pleading guilty to unlawful possession
Speaker 2: of a weapon, Jalen was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Speaker 2: Police later said that at the time of his arrest,
Speaker 2: Adrian Rutger had six outstanding warrants on him. On July seventh,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, Adrian Rutger was charged with several counts,
Speaker 2: including possession of a controlled substance within ten to deliver,
Speaker 2: possession of fraudulent identification cards, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Speaker 2: But Cristel Rivera's family looks at that same timeline and
Speaker 2: sees something entirely different. It's the same footage, but they
Speaker 2: have a version of events that they say raises a
Speaker 2: whole new set of questions. In a lawsuit filed by
Speaker 2: Crystal's family, they claim that the two minute time frame
Speaker 2: when Carlos went up the stairs and left Crystal there
Speaker 2: was critical. They alleged that he failed to immediately give
Speaker 2: her medical aid that meant she was lying there dying,
Speaker 2: when the lawsuit says her partner should have been trying
Speaker 2: to save her life. The family's lawsuit also questions why
Speaker 2: Carlos said shots fired at police if Carlo was allegedly
Speaker 2: the only person who fired a weapon. This seems to
Speaker 2: be a legally important point because if Carlos believed there
Speaker 2: was still an active threat, that could affect how his
Speaker 2: actions were judged.
Speaker 3: But the lawsuit.
Speaker 2: Claims Carlos never admitted or clarified that the shot at
Speaker 2: police came from his own gun. According to the lawsuit,
Speaker 2: there was no other gun fired during the encounter, just
Speaker 2: the single shot from Carlos Baker's weapon, the shot that
Speaker 2: struck and ultimately killed Crystal. Carlos Baker's attorney disputes the
Speaker 2: family's characterization. He says Carlos did call for an ambulance
Speaker 2: and that he went back down the stairs to try
Speaker 2: to reach Crystal. Crystal's family said that was too little,
Speaker 2: too late. That's why the two minutes after the shot
Speaker 2: had become one of the most important parts of this case.
Speaker 2: But Crystal's family said, really, the most important timeline started
Speaker 2: way before the night Crystal was shot. The family has
Speaker 2: said they believe you can't understand what happened on that
Speaker 2: fateful night without understanding the history between Carlos and Crystal.
Speaker 2: Because Carlos wasn't just Cristel's partner, he was her ex boyfriend.
Speaker 2: Crystal's family lays a lot of these claims out in
Speaker 2: their civil lawsuit. They have filed it in Cook County
Speaker 2: on behalf of Yolanda Rivera, Cristel's mother, and the administrator
Speaker 2: of her estate. The defendants include Carlos Baker, but also
Speaker 2: the City of Chicago. Because the lawsuit alleges Crystal Rivera's
Speaker 2: death was not only caused by Carlos's conduct on the
Speaker 2: night of the shooting, It alleges that her death was
Speaker 2: also the foreseeable result of the City of Chicago's negligence
Speaker 2: in hiring Carlos, in supervising him, and in assigning him.
Speaker 3: As Crystal's partner.
Speaker 2: It's important to state these argist allegations. They are only
Speaker 2: one side of the story and they have not been
Speaker 2: proven in a court of law. The family lawsuit alleges
Speaker 2: that Cristel Rivera and Carlos Baker had been an on
Speaker 2: and off romantic relationship for a long time. It alleges
Speaker 2: the relationship began in twenty twenty three while they were
Speaker 2: working together as CPD partners, and that they dated for
Speaker 2: about two years, and that officers on the police force
Speaker 2: were aware of Carlos and Crystal's relationship and that they
Speaker 2: had been aware of it since around September of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three. But there's more because, according to the lawsuit,
Speaker 2: Crystal ended the relationship with Carlos shortly before her.
Speaker 3: Death, and the reason for her ending it.
Speaker 2: According to court documents, was because Carlos was quote involved
Speaker 2: with another woman that Crystal learned about it, and that
Speaker 2: Cristel said she intended to tell that woman about her
Speaker 2: relationship with Carlos end quote. So, the lawsuit states that
Speaker 2: Cristal learned about Carlos's other long term relationship with another
Speaker 2: woman in February of twenty twenty five, and that in
Speaker 2: May of twenty twenty five, Crystal broke.
Speaker 3: Up with him.
Speaker 2: But Crystal's family said they believed the timeline starts even
Speaker 2: earlier than that because Kristal's family attorney says the Chicago
Speaker 2: Police Department had quote important knowledge that Chicago police officer
Speaker 2: Carlos Baker posed a threat to women, including Crystal. Yet
Speaker 2: despite multiple citizen and pure complaints about Baker's behavior and
Speaker 2: Crystal's informing superiors that she thought he was reckless in
Speaker 2: the past. The two were paired together as partners on
Speaker 2: duty end quote. So the lawsuit claims Carlos and Crystal
Speaker 2: had been arguing because Cristel was about to confess to
Speaker 2: Carlos's live in girlfriend that they had been in a
Speaker 2: romantic relationship. The lawsuit states that they believed that Carlos's
Speaker 2: girlfriend was unaware of his relationship with Crystal, So if
Speaker 2: these claims are true, this could potentially have been a
Speaker 2: situation with a lot of potential for conflict. After Crystal
Speaker 2: ended her romantic relationship with Carlos in May of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, she expressed concerns to her CPD colleagues about
Speaker 2: what court documents claim were his adverse and hostile reaction
Speaker 2: to the breakup and his continued attempts to contact Crystal
Speaker 2: outside of work about personal matters. During this time, Crystal
Speaker 2: was allegedly telling Carlos she was going to tell his
Speaker 2: girlfriend about their relationship, and then in the early morning
Speaker 2: hours of June fourth, twenty twenty five, which would have
Speaker 2: been less than forty eight hours before Crystal's death, Carlos
Speaker 2: showed up at Crystal's home uninvited after she told him
Speaker 2: specifically not to come there. Just hours later, she would
Speaker 2: die from a gunshot wound, while the lawsuit claims Carlos
Speaker 2: quote stood by and did nothing to save her.
Speaker 3: Life end quote.
Speaker 2: The lawsuit calls Carlos a danger to women and claimed
Speaker 2: that as early as twenty twenty two that Carlos was
Speaker 2: quote hostile and threatening to women outside of his professional
Speaker 2: capacity end quote. Carlos's attorney, Tim Gray said in a
Speaker 2: statement which was reported by the Illinois Answers Project in
Speaker 2: conjunction with the Chicago Sun Times that quote Officer Baker
Speaker 2: is heartbroken over what happened on that night and will
Speaker 2: privately process his grief. The focus should not be on
Speaker 2: second guessing each tactical decision made, but rather on the
Speaker 2: profound loss of a great police officer an equally great person.
Speaker 2: Policing is a dangerous profession, and it is no easy
Speaker 2: task to keep the people of the city safe.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, the lawsuit claims that a former
Speaker 2: love interest of Carlos filed a restraining order against him. Again,
Speaker 2: none of these claims have been tested in court, but
Speaker 2: it does bring up an interesting question about what happens
Speaker 2: when there's a personal relationship between two partners and things
Speaker 2: go south, and whether warning signs could have been ignored.
Speaker 2: The word partner in police work is interesting because it
Speaker 2: means a lot more than just work colleagues. A partner
Speaker 2: in police work is someone you literally have to trust
Speaker 2: with your life every day. But a natural question that
Speaker 2: comes to mind for me is when something like this happens,
Speaker 2: when partners in life and partners in police work go
Speaker 2: through a breakup, what's the protocol? Can they ask to
Speaker 2: be reassigned? So I took a look at the CPD's
Speaker 2: official policy since I haven't seen any reports on this,
Speaker 2: and it turns out that the answer is it's complicated
Speaker 2: because there are very specific rules in play. If they're
Speaker 2: dealing with someone who's a supervisor of someone else, officers
Speaker 2: are banned from having relationships with people who are below
Speaker 2: them on the food chain. For example, officers can't start
Speaker 2: relationships with recruits. There are also rules banning sex while
Speaker 2: on duty, but peer to peer relationships relationships between professional
Speaker 2: equals are more complicated. The Police State quote. While peer
Speaker 2: level officers are really allowed to date, they face heavy restrictions,
Speaker 2: including shift assignments. Partner pairings and training environments. There are
Speaker 2: also rules involving chain of command in general, so if
Speaker 2: one person in a romantic relationship is promoted, for example,
Speaker 2: they are supposed to formally disclose the relationship to internal
Speaker 2: affairs or human resources. CBS News reported these rules exist
Speaker 2: because of a few reasons. First, of all, police forces
Speaker 2: want to dissuade people from filing hostile work environment lawsuits.
Speaker 2: But also if a bad breakup between officers happen, like
Speaker 2: the one Crystal's family allege happened between her and Carlos,
Speaker 2: this can become a major safety issue, both for the
Speaker 2: officers involved and also for their colleagues and the general public.
Speaker 2: Crystal's family lawsuit claims that after her relationship with Carlos ended,
Speaker 2: that Crystal did express an interest to be reassigned or
Speaker 2: given a different partner. It's not yet clear what those
Speaker 2: communications were with the CPD supervisors, but on June fifth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, Carlos and Crystal were still working together.
Speaker 2: But it's interesting because the lawsuit goes even further back
Speaker 2: and says not only should Cristal and Carlos have not
Speaker 2: been working together that night, it alleges that by the
Speaker 2: Police Department allowing her to be partnered with Carlos, that
Speaker 2: the department put Crystal in a dangerous position before that
Speaker 2: pursuit ever began. The lawsuit also focuses on Carlos's history
Speaker 2: inside the Chicago Police Department. Carlos, according to the complaint,
Speaker 2: had accumulated at least eleven misconduct complaints in less than
Speaker 2: three years on the force, which was a complaint history
Speaker 2: worse than ninety five percent of CPD officers. The Chicago
Speaker 2: Sun Times also reported that why all Carlos was a
Speaker 2: probationary officer, a woman he had dated filed a complaint
Speaker 2: alleging that he flashed a gun at her in December
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty two. The reporting by the Sun Times
Speaker 2: and the Illinois Answers Project gave more details about that incident,
Speaker 2: stating that the woman whom Carlos was dating showed up
Speaker 2: at a bar called Blue Light while she was on
Speaker 2: a date with another man, and that Carlos showed up
Speaker 2: and allegedly said who the fuck is that guy, before
Speaker 2: lifting his shirt to show a gun in his waistband.
Speaker 2: So Crystal's family says these types of incidents should have
Speaker 2: been a warning sign about what they describe as the
Speaker 2: specific risk Carlos could pose to women with whom he
Speaker 2: had been romantically involved. According to the lawsuit, the domestic
Speaker 2: violence investigation related to the woman at the bar was
Speaker 2: closed after a few months, and Carlos was not disciplined.
Speaker 2: These complaints and others all happened when Carlos was still
Speaker 2: a probationary officer, which meant, the lawsuit argus is that
Speaker 2: this would have been a period when the CPD could
Speaker 2: have more easily terminated Carlos's employment, but that didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Carlos stayed on the force and he was later promoted.
Speaker 2: In March of twenty twenty five, Carlos was a signed
Speaker 2: to the sixth District Tactical Team. This was a specialized
Speaker 2: unit and it's a highly sought after placement in that department.
Speaker 2: The family lawsuits claimed negligent retention and negligent supervision because
Speaker 2: they claimed these incidents meant the police department had chances
Speaker 2: to intervene here and didn't. In August of twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: CBS News reported Carlos was quote stripped of his police
Speaker 2: powers after allegations he had attacked a female police officer
Speaker 2: who was off duty at a restaurant in wicker Park.
Speaker 2: The news channel also reported that following that incident, which
Speaker 2: by the way, was unrelated to Crystal Rivera or the shooting,
Speaker 2: that Carlos called some businesses around that bar, allegedly looking
Speaker 2: for surveillance footage that showed the incident. In the summer
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five, Crystal's family held a press conference.
Speaker 2: They claimed they didn't believe this unintentional discharge story, saying
Speaker 2: that it quote does not yet pass the smell test
Speaker 2: end quote. Through his attorneys, Carlos has completely denied the
Speaker 2: claims made in the lawsuit and said that Krystal's family
Speaker 2: is creating their own false narrative. Carlos does have support.
Speaker 2: The president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge seven,
Speaker 2: also criticized Krystal's family narrative and said, in his opinion,
Speaker 2: everything related to Carlos Baker firing his weapon occurred in
Speaker 2: under three seconds. So was the relevant moment, as Carlos
Speaker 2: and his attorneys claimed, just those seconds in the apartment
Speaker 2: building or was it everything building up to that. Was
Speaker 2: this a split second tactical accident, or was it a
Speaker 2: foreseeable workplace and supervisory failure. Let's go back to the video.
Speaker 2: Back to the chase scene. Carlo and Crystal were going
Speaker 2: up the stairs. Carlos was in front, Crystal was behind him.
Speaker 2: Carlos got to the door first. He was standing right
Speaker 2: in front of it with his gun pulled out. The
Speaker 2: lawsuit A ledges Carlos kicked open the door and saw
Speaker 2: this person who we now know to be Adrian Rucker,
Speaker 2: allegedly pointing a rifle at him, and Carlos shot, but
Speaker 2: instead of shooting Adrian, he shot Crystal.
Speaker 3: Crystal was shot in the back.
Speaker 2: In April twenty twenty six, COPA released video and other
Speaker 2: materials connected to the shooting, and that release included the
Speaker 2: body worn camera footage from Crystal and Carlos. But even
Speaker 2: the video footage is controversial because Crystal's family and attorneys
Speaker 2: have stated that they had previously viewed footage, that footage
Speaker 2: was hours long, and they believed there was at least
Speaker 2: one discrepancy between what they saw earlier and what was
Speaker 2: released publicly. COPA have said their investigation is still ongoing.
Speaker 2: The Chicago Police Department has said something similar that due
Speaker 2: to the fact that this is an active investigation. The
Speaker 2: department would not comment further, so that means the body
Speaker 2: cam footage and the release did not settle this case. Instead,
Speaker 2: it became part of the dispute. One of the hardest
Speaker 2: questions in this case is intent. Did Carlos mean to fire,
Speaker 2: did he know where Crystal was? Or was it purely accidental.
Speaker 2: The answers have to come from evidence, including body camera footage,
Speaker 2: but also a lot of other details, everything from the
Speaker 2: layout of the hallway and the angle of the shots,
Speaker 2: statements of other officers, prior complaints, and a lot of
Speaker 2: other evidence.
Speaker 3: Reports say Carlos.
Speaker 2: Has been relieved of his police powers, they don't say
Speaker 2: that he was fired. They don't explain exactly what that means.
Speaker 2: And again, even that was reportedly due to an unrelated incident.
Speaker 2: Krystal's family has filed this civil lawsuit, but it's just
Speaker 2: in the beginning stages.
Speaker 3: We do not know whether the shooting will.
Speaker 2: Ultimately be treated as a tragic accident, a policy failure,
Speaker 2: a foreseeable workplace danger, or something more. Or there could
Speaker 2: be a settlement and we may never find out a
Speaker 2: lot of these details. Many police shooting cases ask what
Speaker 2: happened between officers and members of the public. This one
Speaker 2: asked what happened inside this police department if the family's
Speaker 2: allegations are true. Crystal did what people are often told
Speaker 2: to do. She raised concerns. She said she wanted to
Speaker 2: be kept safe and after ending a relationship, wanted to
Speaker 2: be separated from someone who her family claimed had shown
Speaker 2: up at her home at least once uninvited, and the
Speaker 2: institution that employed both of them chose to keep them together.
Speaker 2: So this raises a lot of questions about what happens
Speaker 2: when one officer says another officer is reckless or unsafe,
Speaker 2: how misconduct complaints are treated, who is responsible for making
Speaker 2: sure that two officers should not be assigned together, and
Speaker 2: what happens when the officer raising concern is a woman
Speaker 2: inside a male dominated institution. Was Crystal Rivera's death an
Speaker 2: unforseeable accident in a chaotic hallway or was it the
Speaker 2: final result of multiple warning signs that Chicago police ignored
Speaker 2: until it was too late. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murderline is a production
Speaker 2: of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and
Speaker 2: narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for a research assistance and
Speaker 2: Sarah Burns for legal review. Noah camer mixed and scored
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale, Executive
Speaker 2: producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C.
Speaker 3: Crowley.
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Speaker 1: School of Humans