Cop Who Shot Krystal Rivera Waited 2 Minutes to Help Her

Body-camera footage made public Friday shows Officer Carlos Baker waited nearly two minutes before going to the aid of Officer Krystal Rivera, the partner he shot on June 5 in Chatham, according to video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

COPA put out three videos that afternoon. They don’t make for easy viewing.

The footage traces a foot chase that ended at 8200 South Drexel Avenue, where Baker fired the shot that killed Rivera. After pulling the trigger, Baker ran upstairs and stayed there. He didn’t go back to her. About 25 seconds after the shot, he called out “Krystal, you good?” She didn’t answer. She was already down.

Rivera didn’t make it.

Baker’s own body camera recorded the sequence that led to the shooting. The two officers were chasing a man into an apartment building, Baker running ahead. He repeatedly ordered the man to drop a weapon. The suspect went inside an apartment and shut the door. Baker kicked it open. A security camera already mounted inside the unit captured what came next: a second person ran from another room, came back holding something that looked like a weapon, and pointed it toward the doorway before both men bolted.

Baker spun around in the entryway and said, “Wait.” Then he fired.

The full sequence, in COPA’s words: “He fires. He appears to fall. Rivera had been coming down the hallway toward the apartment. A woman’s scream follows the gunshot. Baker then sprints upstairs, away from Rivera, screaming” that shots had been fired at police.

He stopped at the top of the staircase, above the suspect’s floor, and appeared to sit. Twenty-five seconds passed. He called Rivera’s name. Nothing came back on the video. Close to two minutes went by before Baker finally went to her.

That timeline was first reported by Block Club Chicago.

The department’s official position is that the shooting was an accident. Rivera’s family isn’t buying it. In a civil lawsuit, they allege Baker and Rivera had a failed romantic relationship and that he shot her on purpose, then deliberately held back aid. The videos released Friday can’t resolve the question of intent. What they can do is show, minute by minute, what Baker chose to do after Rivera fell.

COPA, which investigates every instance of deadly force by Chicago police, is still working through the case. Under CPD use-of-force guidelines, officers have specific obligations after a shooting, and COPA’s final report will assess whether Baker met them. The Police Board could ultimately weigh in on any disciplinary outcome.

In mid-August, CPD stripped Baker of his police powers in connection with a separate, unrelated matter. He hasn’t been charged criminally in Rivera’s death and remains in a desk assignment inside the department.

A department spokesperson issued a statement Friday afternoon. “Our hearts remain with fallen Officer Krystal Rivera’s family,” the spokesperson said. “These videos are difficult to watch, and we remind members of the public that there is an active COPA investigation, which CPD continues to cooperate with.”

That was the extent of it. The spokesperson didn’t take questions.

Rivera’s shooting drew intense attention from the moment it became public in 2026, partly because the circumstances were so unusual, a Chicago officer killed by a fellow officer’s bullet during a chase, and partly because of what the family’s lawsuit alleged about the relationship between Baker and Rivera. The release of the footage Friday won’t end the debate about what happened on South Drexel Avenue on June 5, but it hands the public something concrete: a documented record of those two minutes after the shot, frame by frame, with Baker at the top of the stairs and Rivera out of his sight below.

COPA’s investigation remains open.