CHICAGO — Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera was killed after being struck by friendly fire while encountering an armed suspect late Thursday, police now say.
In a statement late Friday, the department said that another officer “discharged his weapon during the encounter with an armed offender” and that further investigation “revealed the only weapon discharged during this incident was the weapon of the officer, whose gunfire unintentionally struck Officer Rivera.”
Rivera, 36 of Irving Park, was a mother of a young daughter and had been with the Police Department for four years, Supt. Larry Snelling said at a Friday morning news conference.
Rivera was “young, vibrant and a hard worker,” Snelling said.
About 9:50 p.m. Thursday, officers were patrolling when they tried to make “an investigatory stop” of a person they believed was armed in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue, Snelling said at the news conference.
The person ran into a nearby apartment building and the officers chased the person into an apartment, where they confronted a second person who had a rifle pointed at the officers, Snelling said.
Earlier Friday, Snelling said police needed to examine evidence from the apartment to determine what happened, but that, at some point, an officer fired his or her gun and Rivera was struck. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Friday that Rivera died from a gunshot wound to the back.
“The investigation into the aggravated assault of the police officers by the armed offender who pointed the rifle remains ongoing,” the police department’s late Friday statement read. “This offender remains in custody. Detectives also continue to investigate the circumstances that led to the investigative stop preceding the encounter. At this time, no further information is available while the investigation continues.”
The statement concluded by asking that the city “continue to pray for fallen Officer Krystal Rivera’s family during this heartbreaking time.”
“We also ask that the people of Chicago pray for Officer Rivera’s partner as he faces the loss of his fellow CPD family member,” the statement continued. “Though her loss weighs heavy on our department, we will continue to do all we can to protect our city in memory of Officer Rivera and her sacrifice.”
Officers got Rivera into a car and tried to rush her to a hospital, but they crashed and the car caught fire. Rivera was moved into another car and taken to the hospital, where she died from her wounds, Snelling told reporters earlier Friday.
Another officer was shot in his or her wrist and was hospitalized in fair condition, police said.
“Our officer that we lost tonight — this happens way too often,” Snelling said. “An officer, a young officer, 36 years old and four years on the job, who was working hard, working extremely hard in the 6th District to get guns off the street, to save lives.
“These officers are out here driving down crime while putting their lives at risk. I want everyone to keep this officer’s family in your prayers and understand the risk that she took every single day when she came out to do her job.”
Two people ran from the apartment but were taken into custody, and three guns were found, Snelling said.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability — the Police Department’s watchdog — and the Investigative Response Team were investigating.
Randell Brown, a neighbor who lives on 81st and Ingleside, a block over from where the shooting occurred, said officers were on his block late Thursday with dogs telling neighbors to “be careful” and squad cars were “flying through the alleys and off the block.”
“The cops weren’t saying anything. No one was saying anything, but I knew it had to be something terrible for the way they had the blocks cut off,” he said.
Traffic was blocked on Brown’s street and surrounding blocks, and the Cottage Grove bus was rerouted. Later, when Brown was allowed to leave his home to head to a nearby gas station, police told him about the shooting, he said.
He called the shooting sad and terrible.
“[This is] very disturbing,” Brown said. “You got people who will fire on the police, that’s dangerous. I mean, that’s scary.
“I’ve been living on this block for 12 years, and the worst that can happen to me is I that can hear two cars get stolen, but to actually worry about someone shooting at you or firing on you, that’s just terrible.”
A police squad car was parked Friday morning on the block of West Irving Park Road near the two-flat building believed to be where Rivera lived. A person who answered the door at the residence declined comment and closed the door.
“This young woman served honorably and courageously. I’m calling on the entire city of Chicago to keep this officer’s family in your prayers along with our entire police department,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at the Friday morning press conference.
The Sun-Times reported Friday that Rivera was a single mother who had a very close relationship with her 10-year-old daughter, Bella Medina. Her daughter told the Sun-Times Friday that her mother gave her a tighter hug than usual before she left for work Thursday.
“When she said bye it’s like she had a feeling,” Medina told the newspaper. “She gave me the biggest hug, biggest kiss and she said ‘If anything happens I’m always right here,’ in my heart.”
Krystal’s mother, Yolanda Rivera, told the Sun-Times she was rushed with Medina to University of Chicago Medical Center, where doctors said they tried everything they could to save her.
Her family told the Sun-Times that Krystal Rivera had been planning her daughter’s 11th birthday party, which was scheduled for Saturday.
“I’m gonna miss her,” Medina told the Sun-Times. “I want to go home with her, I don’t want my whole life to change.”
