Hell and Gone Murder Line: Krystal Rivera

0:46Speaker 1:School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

1:18Speaker 1:Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.

1:29Speaker 2:On June fifth, twenty twenty five, thirty six year old Chicago Police officer Crystal Rivera was working patrol in the East Chatham neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. She was with her partner, officer Carlos Baker. Crystal had recently passed her four year anniversary with the Chicago Police Department.

1:49Speaker 3:She loved her job.

1:51Speaker 2:Kristel was a single mother to young daughter Isabella, and she had been working with Carlos for several years. They were both members of CPD's sixth District Tactical Team. That night, they were patrolling near the eighty two hundred block of South Drex Avenue. It was an ordinary night until about nine to fifty pm. That's when Carlos Baker and Crystal Rivera saw a man outside an apartment building on South Drex Avenue.

2:19Speaker 3:The man would later.

2:20Speaker 2:Be identified by police as Jalen Arnold. According to prosecutors, the officers believed that Jalen might be armed. They said he had an unusually large bulge under his jacket, something that appeared consistent with a firearm or a drum magazine. Carlos and Crystal approached Jalen, and Jalen ran, so they ran after him. These moments would later be captured on both Carlos and Crystal's body cameras.

2:48Speaker 3:Yes, what is that?

2:56Speaker 2:On the footage, the officers can be seen running up to the apartment door and yelling for Jalen to show them his hands. They appear to be buzzing different doors. You can hear someone yelling police in the background, and eventually it appears as though someone lets the officers in. Once the chase went into the apartment building, they ran up a flight of stairs toward a second four apartment. On the video, you can see Jalen in front of them, Carlos was behind him, and Crystal was behind Carlos. Both Carlos and Crystal had their guns drawn. This hallway was narrow, They were breathing hard, and then Carlos kicked in the door.

3:54Speaker 2:After he kicked in the door, Carlos saw something behind that door. He fired a shot from his weapon, but it didn't hit the suspect.

4:03Speaker 3:It hit Crystal.

4:06Speaker 2:And what happened after that splits this case into two different timelines. The first one is Carlos Baker's timeline, because both he and his defenders say that everything relevant to this case happened in a matter of seconds in a narrow hallway during a dangerous pursuit with two armed men inside an apartment. But Crystal Rivera's family claims in a lawsuit that that timeline is too short. They say there's another timeline, one that is much longer, and one that started long before that fateful chase into the apartment building.

4:39Speaker 2:Crystal's family claims that this timeline started years or with Carlos and Crystal. They say the two weren't just partners on the job, they were romantically involved, and they had recently gone through a painful breakup. Then not long after that, one of them ended up dead. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past eight years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five, or you can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.

6:27Speaker 2:According to Crystal's obituary, she began her training to join the police department when she was just eighteen years old. She considered going to join the army, but wanted to serve her community locally. After she joined the Chicago Police Department, she had dreams of becoming a forensic investigator, but Cristel was juggling a lot. She had a full time job, and she was taking care of her young daughter, Isabella, who, according to her family, was Cristel's whole world. Cristel was researching online classes to see if part time studying for forensics would be an option. Her family wrote in her obituary that she was known for her sense of humor and her passions, which included fashion and horses, and also staying physically fit. She always made time to go to the gym. The obituary read quote, Though she gave much to her work and goals, Cristel's number one priority was always her daughter, Isabella. Her daughter was the center of her world, and everything she did was with Isabella in mind.

7:30Speaker 3:End quote.

7:32Speaker 2:Christel loved her job, and her mom said though members of the family had worked in law enforcement, Cristel was the family's first female police officer, and on June second, twenty five, Crystal was working with Carlos Baker. Carlos was her partner, which in police work is more than just a work partner. This is someone you regularly have to trust with your life, and in Crystal and Carlos's case, this was an even more complicated dynamic because, according to Krystal's family. Carlos and Crystal had been in a long term relationship and had recently split. Crystal and Carlos were on the CPD's sixth District Tactical Team. The police Department in Chicago has twenty two of these Tactical Unit teams and they're charged with proactively dealing with crime. They often deploy in undercover vehicles or while wearing street clothes, and this is in an area that has quite a bit of violence and property crime. So, as we said before, Carlos and Crystal were pursuing Jalen. Bodycam footage has been released by Chicago's civilian Office of Police Accountability. This footage shows the chase from both Crystal and Carlos's perspectives. So

8:48Speaker 2:let's start with timeline one, the short timeline, the one that Carlos Baker's attorney has focused on. This timeline starts with the chase, the apartment, the shot, and the two minutes that followed. This footage is chaotic, but in that body cam footage, Carlos is in the front and Crystal is behind him. You can see them moving through the stairwell toward the second four apartment. Both of them have their guns out. Carlos runs into an apartment at the end of the hallway. Then Crystal reaches the doorway. Carlos's footage shows him crouching and kicking in the door. If you freeze frame, Jalen is visible, you can see him jumping over a couch to hide. There was another man inside as well. This man was later identified as Adrian Rucker.

9:36Speaker 2:According to the CPD, Adrian Rucker had an ar style long rifle which he allegedly pointed at Carlos, and then Carlos appears to spin around and you can hear one gunshot.

9:49Speaker 3:Carlos fires.

9:51Speaker 2:At the same time, Crystal's body camera captures the sound of the gunshot and a woman screaming. That woman was Crystal. Carlos's shot had not hit Jalen or Adrian. It hit his partner, Crystal Rivera. Crystal was lying in a pool of blood. She radioed in for assistance, but the dispatcher couldn't hear her, and because she was so badly hurt, she was unable to repeat that she needed help. Carlos Baker's firearm fired that single shot that killed Crystal Rivera.

10:24Speaker 2:That part is not in dispute. What is disputed is how and why that shot was fired. Carlos Baker, through his attorney, has said this was an unintentional discharge of his firearm. His attorney has described it as a split second judgment call in a life or death situation. Prosecute have also described the shooting as accidental, and Carlos has not been charged with any crime in connection with this incident. But Crystal Rivera's family does not accept the idea that the word accident explains what happened, because they claim this shooting has to be understood in a larger context.

11:03Speaker 3:But before we get to that.

11:04Speaker 2:Second timeline, we have to stay inside the first one, because the first timeline does not end with a gunshot. It continues with what Carlos Baker did next. After firing that shot, Carlos ran up another flight of stairs. He radioed the police that shots were fired at police, and then he made a call for a ten.

11:24Speaker 3:To one, an emergency call for assistance. Shot fire, tadline, shot police turn what you can hear him breathing heavily.

11:39Speaker 2:Then about thirty seconds later, Carlos calls out to Crystal, asking Crystal you good.

11:44Speaker 3:Crystal, We have an ambulance. Ambulance, No, I can't get my corner.

11:57Speaker 2:After that, it's silence. Crystal does not answer. Then Carlos requests an ambulance. He says he can't get down to Crystal. According to the footage summary, Carlos starts back down the stairs again. Then he appears to hesitate and go back up the stairs. Then he asks for a swat team. Around two minutes after the shooting, Carlos goes back down the stairs. He reaches Crystal, who is lying motionless in a pool of blood.

12:26Speaker 3:Second floor. Hurry on, Christal, hear me, hear me?

12:33Speaker 2:All right, I heard the second floor.

12:36Speaker 1:What's the second poor?

12:38Speaker 2:The video shows Carlos pulling Crystal towards the stairs. He says, come on and stay with me, Chris, and then the other officers arrive on the scene. When they do, Carlos tells the other officers to get Crystal in the car and take her to the hospital. Crystal was taken to the hospital where she later died. So in timeline won there are really two key moments, the three seconds before the shot and the two minutes after it. Carlos, Baker's attorney says those first seconds are what matter most. He claims that Carlos was confronting a dangerous situation with two armed men inside the apartment. According to police, Jalen Arnold had a loaded handgun on him and Adrian Rucker was pointing an ar style long rifle at Carlos Baker when Carlos fired his weapon. According to police, Carlos's attorney has said when Adrian pointed that rifle at Carlos, Carlos stumbled.

13:38Speaker 2:That's when he stepped back, and that is when this alleged accidental discharge happened. Carlos's attorney said Carlos was afraid for his life and that his actions on the video show that Carlos was acting within CPD policy. That the video proved Carlos did everything in his power and used his training to give aid to Crystal. The attorneys said people should not blame Carlos Baker, they should blame the two armed felons. The attorney says the reason Crystal died is because a person decided to run from the police with a loaded handgun and because another person allegedly pointed a rifle at officers. Jalen Arnold was later charged with armed violence, possession of a firearm by a repeat felon, and possession of cocaine. After pleading guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon, Jalen was sentenced to eight years in prison.

14:30Speaker 2:Police later said that at the time of his arrest, Adrian Rutger had six outstanding warrants on him. On July seventh, twenty twenty five, Adrian Rutger was charged with several counts, including possession of a controlled substance within ten to deliver, possession of fraudulent identification cards, and unlawful possession of a firearm. But Cristel Rivera's family looks at that same timeline and sees something entirely different. It's the same footage, but they have a version of events that they say raises a whole new set of questions. In a lawsuit filed by Crystal's family, they claim that the two minute time frame when Carlos went up the stairs and left Crystal there was critical. They alleged that he failed to immediately give her medical aid that meant she was lying there dying, when the lawsuit says her partner should have been trying to save her life. The family's lawsuit also questions why Carlos said shots fired at police if Carlo was allegedly the only person who fired a weapon. This seems to be a legally important point because if Carlos believed there was still an active threat, that could affect how his

15:55Speaker 2:actions were judged.

15:57Speaker 3:But the lawsuit.

15:57Speaker 2:Claims Carlos never admitted or clarified that the shot at police came from his own gun. According to the lawsuit, there was no other gun fired during the encounter, just the single shot from Carlos Baker's weapon, the shot that struck and ultimately killed Crystal. Carlos Baker's attorney disputes the family's characterization. He says Carlos did call for an ambulance and that he went back down the stairs to try to reach Crystal. Crystal's family said that was too little, too late. That's why the two minutes after the shot had become one of the most important parts of this case.

16:35Speaker 2:But Crystal's family said, really, the most important timeline started way before the night Crystal was shot. The family has said they believe you can't understand what happened on that fateful night without understanding the history between Carlos and Crystal. Because Carlos wasn't just Cristel's partner, he was her ex boyfriend. Crystal's family lays a lot of these claims out in their civil lawsuit. They have filed it in Cook County on behalf of Yolanda Rivera, Cristel's mother, and the administrator of her estate. The defendants include Carlos Baker, but also the City of Chicago. Because the lawsuit alleges Crystal Rivera's death was not only caused by Carlos's conduct on the night of the shooting, It alleges that her death was also the foreseeable result of the City of Chicago's negligence in hiring Carlos, in supervising him, and in assigning him.

17:29Speaker 3:As Crystal's partner.

17:31Speaker 2:It's important to state these argist allegations. They are only one side of the story and they have not been proven in a court of law. The family lawsuit alleges that Cristel Rivera and Carlos Baker had been an on and off romantic relationship for a long time. It alleges the relationship began in twenty twenty three while they were working together as CPD partners, and that they dated for about two years, and that officers on the police force were aware of Carlos and Crystal's relationship and that they had been aware of it since around September of twenty twenty three. But there's more because, according to the lawsuit, Crystal ended the relationship with Carlos shortly before her.

18:11Speaker 3:Death, and the reason for her ending it.

18:15Speaker 2:According to court documents, was because Carlos was quote involved with another woman that Crystal learned about it, and that Cristel said she intended to tell that woman about her relationship with Carlos end quote. So, the lawsuit states that Cristal learned about Carlos's other long term relationship with another woman in February of twenty twenty five, and that in May of twenty twenty five, Crystal broke.

18:39Speaker 3:Up with him.

18:41Speaker 2:But Crystal's family said they believed the timeline starts even earlier than that because Kristal's family attorney says the Chicago Police Department had quote important knowledge that Chicago police officer Carlos Baker posed a threat to women, including Crystal. Yet despite multiple citizen and pure complaints about Baker's behavior and Crystal's informing superiors that she thought he was reckless in the past. The two were paired together as partners on duty end quote. So the lawsuit claims Carlos and Crystal had been arguing because Cristel was about to confess to Carlos's live in girlfriend that they had been in a romantic relationship. The lawsuit states that they believed that Carlos's girlfriend was unaware of his relationship with Crystal, So if these claims are true, this could potentially have been a situation with a lot of potential for conflict. After Crystal ended her romantic relationship with Carlos in May of twenty twenty five, she expressed concerns to her CPD colleagues about what court documents claim were his adverse and hostile reaction to the breakup and his continued attempts to contact Crystal

19:53Speaker 2:outside of work about personal matters. During this time, Crystal was allegedly telling Carlos she was going to tell his girlfriend about their relationship, and then in the early morning hours of June fourth, twenty twenty five, which would have been less than forty eight hours before Crystal's death, Carlos showed up at Crystal's home uninvited after she told him specifically not to come there. Just hours later, she would die from a gunshot wound, while the lawsuit claims Carlos quote stood by and did nothing to save her.

20:26Speaker 3:Life end quote.

20:29Speaker 2:The lawsuit calls Carlos a danger to women and claimed that as early as twenty twenty two that Carlos was quote hostile and threatening to women outside of his professional capacity end quote. Carlos's attorney, Tim Gray said in a statement which was reported by the Illinois Answers Project in conjunction with the Chicago Sun Times that quote Officer Baker is heartbroken over what happened on that night and will privately process his grief. The focus should not be on second guessing each tactical decision made, but rather on the profound loss of a great police officer an equally great person.

21:06Speaker 2:Policing is a dangerous profession, and it is no easy task to keep the people of the city safe.

21:12Speaker 3:End quote.

21:15Speaker 2:In twenty twenty two, the lawsuit claims that a former love interest of Carlos filed a restraining order against him. Again, none of these claims have been tested in court, but it does bring up an interesting question about what happens when there's a personal relationship between two partners and things go south, and whether warning signs could have been ignored. The word partner in police work is interesting because it means a lot more than just work colleagues. A partner in police work is someone you literally have to trust with your life every day. But a natural question that comes to mind for me is when something like this happens, when partners in life and partners in police work go through a breakup, what's the protocol? Can they ask to be reassigned? So I took a look at the CPD's official policy since I haven't seen any reports on this, and it turns out that the answer is it's complicated because there are very specific rules in play. If they're dealing with someone who's a supervisor of someone else, officers are banned from having relationships with people who are below them on the food chain. For example, officers can't start

22:27Speaker 2:relationships with recruits. There are also rules banning sex while on duty, but peer to peer relationships relationships between professional equals are more complicated. The Police State quote. While peer level officers are really allowed to date, they face heavy restrictions, including shift assignments. Partner pairings and training environments. There are also rules involving chain of command in general, so if one person in a romantic relationship is promoted, for example, they are supposed to formally disclose the relationship to internal affairs or human resources. CBS News reported these rules exist because of a few reasons. First, of all, police forces want to dissuade people from filing hostile work environment lawsuits.

23:14Speaker 2:But also if a bad breakup between officers happen, like the one Crystal's family allege happened between her and Carlos, this can become a major safety issue, both for the officers involved and also for their colleagues and the general public. Crystal's family lawsuit claims that after her relationship with Carlos ended, that Crystal did express an interest to be reassigned or given a different partner. It's not yet clear what those communications were with the CPD supervisors, but on June fifth, twenty twenty five, Carlos and Crystal were still working together.

24:01Speaker 2:But it's interesting because the lawsuit goes even further back and says not only should Cristal and Carlos have not been working together that night, it alleges that by the Police Department allowing her to be partnered with Carlos, that the department put Crystal in a dangerous position before that pursuit ever began. The lawsuit also focuses on Carlos's history inside the Chicago Police Department. Carlos, according to the complaint, had accumulated at least eleven misconduct complaints in less than three years on the force, which was a complaint history worse than ninety five percent of CPD officers. The Chicago Sun Times also reported that why all Carlos was a probationary officer, a woman he had dated filed a complaint alleging that he flashed a gun at her in December of twenty twenty two. The reporting by the Sun Times and the Illinois Answers Project gave more details about that incident, stating that the woman whom Carlos was dating showed up at a bar called Blue Light while she was on a date with another man, and that Carlos showed up and allegedly said who the fuck is that guy, before

25:10Speaker 2:lifting his shirt to show a gun in his waistband. So Crystal's family says these types of incidents should have been a warning sign about what they describe as the specific risk Carlos could pose to women with whom he had been romantically involved. According to the lawsuit, the domestic violence investigation related to the woman at the bar was closed after a few months, and Carlos was not disciplined. These complaints and others all happened when Carlos was still a probationary officer, which meant, the lawsuit argus is that this would have been a period when the CPD could have more easily terminated Carlos's employment, but that didn't happen.

25:52Speaker 2:Carlos stayed on the force and he was later promoted. In March of twenty twenty five, Carlos was a signed to the sixth District Tactical Team. This was a specialized unit and it's a highly sought after placement in that department. The family lawsuits claimed negligent retention and negligent supervision because they claimed these incidents meant the police department had chances to intervene here and didn't. In August of twenty twenty five, CBS News reported Carlos was quote stripped of his police powers after allegations he had attacked a female police officer who was off duty at a restaurant in wicker Park.

26:32Speaker 2:The news channel also reported that following that incident, which by the way, was unrelated to Crystal Rivera or the shooting, that Carlos called some businesses around that bar, allegedly looking for surveillance footage that showed the incident. In the summer of twenty twenty five, Crystal's family held a press conference. They claimed they didn't believe this unintentional discharge story, saying that it quote does not yet pass the smell test end quote. Through his attorneys, Carlos has completely denied the claims made in the lawsuit and said that Krystal's family is creating their own false narrative. Carlos does have support.

27:10Speaker 2:The president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge seven, also criticized Krystal's family narrative and said, in his opinion, everything related to Carlos Baker firing his weapon occurred in under three seconds. So was the relevant moment, as Carlos and his attorneys claimed, just those seconds in the apartment building or was it everything building up to that. Was this a split second tactical accident, or was it a foreseeable workplace and supervisory failure. Let's go back to the video.

27:42Speaker 2:Back to the chase scene. Carlo and Crystal were going up the stairs. Carlos was in front, Crystal was behind him. Carlos got to the door first. He was standing right in front of it with his gun pulled out. The lawsuit A ledges Carlos kicked open the door and saw this person who we now know to be Adrian Rucker, allegedly pointing a rifle at him, and Carlos shot, but instead of shooting Adrian, he shot Crystal.

28:07Speaker 3:Crystal was shot in the back.

28:10Speaker 2:In April twenty twenty six, COPA released video and other materials connected to the shooting, and that release included the body worn camera footage from Crystal and Carlos. But even the video footage is controversial because Crystal's family and attorneys have stated that they had previously viewed footage, that footage was hours long, and they believed there was at least one discrepancy between what they saw earlier and what was released publicly. COPA have said their investigation is still ongoing.

28:42Speaker 2:The Chicago Police Department has said something similar that due to the fact that this is an active investigation. The department would not comment further, so that means the body cam footage and the release did not settle this case. Instead, it became part of the dispute. One of the hardest questions in this case is intent. Did Carlos mean to fire, did he know where Crystal was? Or was it purely accidental. The answers have to come from evidence, including body camera footage, but also a lot of other details, everything from the layout of the hallway and the angle of the shots, statements of other officers, prior complaints, and a lot of other evidence.

29:24Speaker 3:Reports say Carlos.

29:25Speaker 2:Has been relieved of his police powers, they don't say that he was fired. They don't explain exactly what that means. And again, even that was reportedly due to an unrelated incident. Krystal's family has filed this civil lawsuit, but it's just in the beginning stages.

29:41Speaker 3:We do not know whether the shooting will.

29:43Speaker 2:Ultimately be treated as a tragic accident, a policy failure, a foreseeable workplace danger, or something more. Or there could be a settlement and we may never find out a lot of these details. Many police shooting cases ask what happened between officers and members of the public. This one asked what happened inside this police department if the family's allegations are true. Crystal did what people are often told to do. She raised concerns. She said she wanted to be kept safe and after ending a relationship, wanted to be separated from someone who her family claimed had shown up at her home at least once uninvited, and the institution that employed both of them chose to keep them together.

30:27Speaker 2:So this raises a lot of questions about what happens when one officer says another officer is reckless or unsafe, how misconduct complaints are treated, who is responsible for making sure that two officers should not be assigned together, and what happens when the officer raising concern is a woman inside a male dominated institution. Was Crystal Rivera's death an unforseeable accident in a chaotic hallway or was it the final result of multiple warning signs that Chicago police ignored until it was too late. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murderline is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for a research assistance and Sarah Burns for legal review. Noah camer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C.

31:28Speaker 3:Crowley.

31:29Speaker 2:Listen to Helen Gone Ad free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plush channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helengong Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five at six seven eight seven four four six one four five

32:01Speaker 1:School of Humans