Chicago police told Illinois officials Officer Krystal Rivera was shot by an ‘armed suspect,' not her partner

The Chicago Police Department told state safety regulators that a barricaded suspect shot Officer Krystal Rivera when she'd actually been killed by her partner despite police investigators having viewed body-worn camera footage the night of the shooting.

More than two months later, the police department hasn’t corrected that report with the Illinois Department of Labor, the state agency that investigates public-sector workplace deaths. Police departments are required to report work-related deaths to the state within eight hours.

A labor department spokesman won't about the matter or the agency’s decision not to investigate the shooting. Agency records show officials never sought clarification from the police department, and their file on the death remains closed.

Officer Carlos Baker, Rivera’s partner, shot and killed her with a single shot after they chased a man into an apartment building and encountered another man with a rifle just before 10 p.m. June 5 in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue in Chatham.

Rivera’s death was the fatal police shooting in Chicago by another officer in nearly 40 years. Questions remain about the circumstances, including whether Baker intended to fire, or his gun malfunctioned, or he accidentally pulled the trigger.

An autopsy report released Wednesday, ruling Rivera’s death a homicide, shows she died from a single bullet that entered her back and lodged in her torso. The report doesn’t mention Rivera’s protective vest or where the shot might have entered relative to a vest.

The Cook County medical examiner’s report says the gun was fired by someone “knowing the action could cause death,” which appears at odds with a statement from the city's Civilian Office of Police Accountability days after the shooting that called the shooting “unintentional.”

COPA won’t comment.

A Cook County spokeswoman says the homicide ruling meant Baker “was not coerced/forced to fire (the gun) by others” and that the death was “due to another (person).”

The police department won't comment. It has said the shot “unintentionally” struck Rivera.

Antonio Romanucci, a lawyer for Rivera's relatives, says they’re concerned about “bias being injected into this investigation.

“From inaccuracies to what appear to be outright lies, even after the facts are known, to letting false information remain in the public domain, we are troubled by the lack of transparency and leadership at CPD on the tragic loss of an officer,” Romanucci says.

The state labor department generally doesn’t but could investigate when police officers are killed or seriously injured at the hands of criminals or during investigations. Nearly every police shooting falls into this category.

In four instances on reporting forms filed with the state, Rivera is said to have been either on scene of a barricaded person or shot by a suspect, including one that said: “Police officer was shot by a suspect that had barricaded themselves."

In response to questions listed by the state agency, the police department reported that Rivera was “on scene of a barricaded subject,” “officer was shot by suspect” and that the “object or substance that directly harmed the employee” was an “armed suspect.”

The police didn’t tell the labor department that the car taking Rivera to a hospital had caught fire, that Baker was driving the car and that officers had to remove her from the burning car and get her into another before continuing to the emergency room.

The police department notified the state around 12:40 a.m. June 6 — three hours after the shooting — that an officer had died.

At a news conference about two hours later, police Supt. Larry Snelling said body-camera footage showed Rivera had been shot but didn't say who shot her. Later that day, police officials acknowledged she’d been shot by her partner.

The police department won’t say when Snelling found out that Baker had shot his partner or at what time body-worn camera footage was first viewed. Police department command officials typically review footage from wounded cops as soon as their camera can be retrieved.

An officer in the department’s internal information clearinghouse notified state officials of Rivera’s death. It’s not clear who gave that officer the wrong information or directed the officer to notify the state.

Peter Nickeas and Casey Toner report for the lllinois Answers Project.