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Disturbing new police bodycam footage captured the moment a Chicago cop fatally shot his partner during a chaotic pursuit – then waited nearly two minutes before checking on her as he took cover.
The unsettling videos, released Friday by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, show Officer Carlos Baker fire the deadly shot at Officer Krystal Rivera last year inside an apartment building before running away as she lay unconscious and bleeding on the floor.
The footage shows Baker and Rivera entering the Chatham apartment building and chasing an armed man up a flight of stairs around 9:50 p.m. on June 5, 2025.
Baker, several steps ahead of his partner, kicked open an apartment door and was met by a man aiming what appeared to be a rifle at the doorway, causing him to seemingly stumble before firing a shot directly behind him that struck Rivera, the bodycam footage shows.
Baker then sprinted up a stairwell, frantically radioing “shots fired at police,” before shouting “Krystal, you good” about 20 seconds later to no response.
He then briefly crept down the stairs, acknowledging over the radio his partner had been shot and needed an ambulance, before retreating back to the landing and calling for SWAT, the alarming footage shows.
About 90 seconds later, he ran back downstairs and dragged Rivera’s limp and bloodied body down another flight to the lobby, where he was met by responding officers who rendered aid.
Rivera, 36, a four-year veteran of the department, died at a hospital less than an hour after being shot.
An autopsy report found she was shot in the back and ruled her death a homicide – despite the department branding the fatal incident as friendly fire.
Police said Baker was the only person who fired a weapon during the frenzied chase.
The victim’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department in December, alleging Baker had been grappling with Rivera’s decision to end their two-year romantic relationship when she was killed, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
They also claimed he was unfit to be a cop and should have been axed before he unloaded his weapon.
The embattled officer – who reportedly has been the subject of more than a dozen misconduct complaints – told the Civilian Officer of Police Accountability he and Rivera had only been intimate three times and denied having a relationship.
Baker told investigators that he and Rivera were “best friends” and “would never” intentionally shoot her — stressing that he would “die for her,” the outlet reported.
John Catanzara, head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, reportedly defended Baker’s actions after the bodycam footage was released.
Rivera’s family, however, said that Baker “left her to die.”
“We reassert that Carols Baker was unfit to be a Chicago Police Officer and that CPD put Krystal at risk by giving him a badge and a gun,” attorneys for Rivera’s family said in a statement, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
“More so, he failed in his duty to render life-saving aid to Krystal after he shot her. What is clear from both the content of the actual video and the manner in which it is being conveyed to the public, is that Krystal deserved better from CPD.”
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