A wanted felon has been charged and detained in connection with the death of Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera, who was unintentionally shot and killed by her partner last week after the man allegedly pointed an AR-style rifle at officers.
Adrian A. Rucker, 25, of Freeport, faces felony counts of armed violence and illegal possession of a gun, drugs and a fake IDs, Chicago police said in a statement Sunday morning.
At a detention hearing Sunday afternoon, a Cook County judge ordered Rucker held until trial. Officers and Rivera’s family filled the courtroom.
Rivera was shot about 9:50 p.m. Thursday while chasing a person who officers thought was armed into an apartment building in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue, police said.
Prosecutors on Sunday said Rivera and her partner chased the person into a one-bedroom apartment where they encountered Rucker, who was armed with an AR-style rifle, and another person.
Rucker pointed the weapon at the officers, which prosecutors say can be seen on the officers’ body camera footage and surveillance video from inside the apartment.
A different “armed suspect” then jumped over a couch and ran out of the apartment, prosecutors said. Rivera chased him down the hallway, and that’s when her partner unintentionally shot her in the back.
After the shooting, Rucker ran off but was arrested about 20 minutes later in the 8200 block of South Maryland Avenue, according to authorities. Two other people also fled.
When officers searched the apartment, they found a second AR-style rifle, a Glock handgun and several rounds of ammunition. They also found bags and jars of heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Fake IDs were also in the apartment, including ones with Rucker’s photo from California, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Jersey and Ohio.
Prosecutors did not say who the apartment belongs to. Prosecutors and police have not said why officers were pursuing the initial person.
Rivera, who was on the force for four years, was assigned to the Gresham District tactical team. She was pronounced dead a short time later at University of Chicago Medical Center, authorities said.
Speaking to reporters outside the hospital, Police Supt. Larry Snelling acknowledged the police vehicle that was initially being used to transport Rivera to the hospital crashed and caught fire.
“There was some type of malfunction in that vehicle that caught fire,” he said. “But assisting officers came in, and she was transferred to another vehicle and then driven to the hospital.”
Rucker, who has used the aliases James Morris and Juan Aguilar, is a convicted felon with a long history of arrests who has served a series of jail sentences, court records show. He also currently has six outstanding warrants in Cook, Stephenson and Winnebago counties for several charges, including domestic battery, identity theft and possessing fake IDs.
He has been convicted of misdemeanor counts for battery and domestic battery in Stephenson County, northwest of Chicago, where he’s from. His sole felony conviction, for damaging property, came in January 2021, Stephenson County court records show. He got 44 days in jail and 30 months’ probation.
A warrant was issued for Rucker’s arrest in February 2024 after he allegedly used a 73-year-old California woman’s driver’s license to rent a U-Haul truck in Rolling Meadows, Cook County court records show. He was arrested that April and was ordered released from custody as the case continued.
Police took more people into custody after the shooting but have announced charges only against Rucker.
“We have several individuals in custody, but one, in particular, who we believe was on the scene when the officers were confronted with the armed individual,” Snelling told reporters early Friday outside the hospital.