An attorney for the family of Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera, who was fatally shot by her partner, Carlos Baker, said Wednesday that Baker should have never been a police officer, given a serious complaint made against him during his probationary period, and the death of Rivera “should have never happened.”
The lawyer, Antonio Romanucci, at a news conference on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the shooting, saying the Chicago Police Department narrative “does not pass the smell test” and asked the department to publicly release Baker’s full disciplinary record as well as police body cam footage from that night that left the family with more questions than answers. “We have many questions that need to be answered. And we don’t yet trust the narrative that officer Rivera was shot and killed by her partner during a pursuit of suspects who never fired a shot,” he said.
Romanucci wrote Chicago Police Department Supt. Larry Snelling a letter on Friday, requesting he ask the Illinois State Police to conduct an independent criminal investigation into the shooting and that he release video, audio and other evidence of the shooting.
Romanucci said Snelling has not answered him. A spokesperson for the state police said the Chicago Police Department has not requested them to do an investigation.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting but not as a criminal matter.
“Please share and explain what happened here fully in the same way you would have had she been shot and killed by someone not wearing a CPD uniform,” Romanucci wrote. The Chicago Police Department did not respond when asked to comment Wednesday on Romanucci’s request.
Authorities say Rivera was accidentally shot to death in early June by her partner, Baker, as they chased a man with a gun into an apartment building. The two officers, who were working on the Gresham District tactical team, were soon confronted by another armed man. Baker opened fire, unintentionally hitting Rivera, authorities said.
Rivera’s mother, Yolanda Rivera, said Wednesday she needs to know exactly what happened at the shooting. Romanucci said the Chicago Police Department showed Rivera’s family bodycam video of the shooting “days” after it happened, but the video left them wanting for answers.
“I need to understand what happened that night,” Yolanda Rivera said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I need to know the truth. Krystal believed in protecting and serving with honor … Let this moment be guided by truth.”
Romanucci pointed to Baker’s lengthy disciplinary record, arguing he should have been fired as a probationary officer. Illinois Answers Project and the Chicago Sun-Times first reported last month that Baker faced more than a dozen complaints in his short career and faced three suspensions and two reprimands.
Only 5% of Chicago police had six or more misconduct complaints from 2018 through 2023, according to data from the Invisible Institute. Baker had been an officer for about three-and-a-half years at the time he shot his partner.
Romanucci zeroed in on a complaint against Baker in December 2022 in which a woman alleged Baker flashed a gun at her at a North Side bar and swore at her while she was on a date with another man. She knew Baker after meeting him on Instagram. She did not cooperate with investigators from the COPA, and Baker faced no discipline as a result, records show.
“Those aren’t even warning signs…those are just career killers,” Romanucci said of some of the complaints. The gun-flashing complaint was made when Baker was on probation and he could have been fired then because he lacked most union protections.
“We believe the warning signs were there for years,” the attorney said. “Had he not been there, Krystal would have been alive.”
Romanucci questioned why Baker was never criminally investigated for the gun-flashing incident and noted that such an incident would typically end a probationary officer’s career. He also asked whether authorities ever interviewed the man the woman was with at the time he was alleged to have flashed the gun.
A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department has declined to answer questions regarding any investigation into the allegation. A CPD spokesman said Wednesday “the officer involved will remain on routine administration duties.”
The closure memo for COPA’s investigation into the gun-flashing incident stated that “should other information become available, or the complainant decides to cooperate later, COPA may reopen the investigation.”
In most cases, COPA is required to release records within 60 days of an officer shooting someone. But after one of the men alleged to have been inside the apartment was charged with armed violence, prosecutors obtained a court order preventing the release of those records and others.
A spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said Wednesday afternoon it would be “inappropriate” for it to try to change the order unilaterally.
The Chicago Police Department has cited the court order in declining to release dozens of other records unrelated to the criminal cases or the shooting, including information about Baker’s disciplinary history.
Tim Grace, Baker’s attorney, said Wednesday the shooting was a “tragic accident” and said Baker’s discipline history was “very minor … for an officer with similar time on the job and one who is deployed to higher crime districts.”
“There is no indication that Officer Baker is under any criminal investigation and I see no reason to believe that would change,” Grace said. He declined to comment on the news conference.
About 18 months before Rivera was killed, a tactical team from the same district oversaw a gun buyback at St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, and a gun from that event was stolen from the district tactical office while police inventoried the guns. Rivera was assigned to work the buyback, according to records, and Baker was not.
Rivera searched her colleagues’ bookbags looking for the gun once another officer realized it was missing, and she cooperated with investigators looking into the gun’s disappearance. Records released by police make clear she was not accused of doing anything wrong. The gun was later used in a series of shootings along 79th Street and police found it being carried by a 16-year-old boy in the South Shore neighborhood.
The Chicago Police Department reopened the internal investigation of the gun’s theft after the Sun-Times and Illinois Answers began asking the CPD about the incident in March.
Romanucci noted Rivera was helping lead the search for the gun that had gone missing the afternoon its disappearance was discovered.
“That’s why we need to know everything here … there’s not just one piece to this puzzle here, there are so many pieces here and we’ve got to start fitting them together.”
A Chicago Police Department spokesman has declined to answer any questions about Baker, his assignment to the tac team, department policies, the missing gun, the investigation into the missing gun, any of the dozen complaints against Baker, or Baker’s status as an officer.
The Illinois State Police often handles investigations into shootings by police officers for smaller police departments, serving as outside investigators to look for potential criminality by the shooting officers.
Peter Nickeas and Casey Toner are reporters at the Illinois Answers Project. Anna Savchenko is a reporter with WBEZ. Tom Schuba is a reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times.