After Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera accidentally killed by fellow officer, top cop warns against rush to judgment
Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling on Saturday cautioned against a rush to judgment, after police confirmed Officer Krystal Rivera was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer Thursday night during a chase in the Chatham neighborhood.
"There may be things that an officer sees that no one else knows at the time," he said.
Rivera was part of a CPD tactical team on patrol just before 10 p.m. near 82nd and Drexel, when they tried to conduct an investigatory stop, and as officers approached, the suspect ran into a nearby apartment building.
Police chased the suspect inside, and sources said Rivera and her partner followed the suspect to an apartment on the second floor.
Snelling has said, when officers got to that apartment, they were confronted by a second person armed with a rifle.
"As released in yesterday's preliminary statement, an officer discharged his weapon during the encounter with an armed offender," the department said in a statement Friday night. "Further investigation revealed the only weapon discharged during this incident was the weapon of the officer, whose gunfire unintentionally struck Officer Rivera."
Rivera, 36, was shot in the back, and was rushed to University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Police have not released any information about the other officer's name, age, or time with department, but sources said the officer is Rivera's partner, and Snelling has given some insight into his situation.
At an outreach event to build bridges between police officers and Chicago youth on Saturday morning, there was no avoiding the trauma and tragedy of the past 48 hours.
"That officer is in a very, very tough place; unimaginable what that officer has to be feeling right now," Snelling said.
Although police have confirmed another officer accidentally shot and killed Rivera, Snelling urged Chicagoans not to jump to any premature conclusions about exactly what happened.
"There may be things that an officer sees that no one else knows at the time," he said.
Dr. Carrie Steiner, a former Chicago police officer turned police and public service psychologist, said the human brain works differently under extreme stress.
"We're trying to do the best job we can, but sometimes it's maybe not the best, right?" she said. "When you're faced with deadly force, your limbic system starts to go, and you are just like more of an animal, and you're just reacting to things. … You're not using the frontal lobe, which is what we're using right now. You're using the limbic system, which is basically fight, flight, freeze."
These situations are rare but not unprecedented. Two Chicago Police officers were wounded in 2021 when another officer's gun discharged during a struggle with a suspect.
Snelling said the investigation will likely result in changes at the department.
"This is how we create training and anything else that we need to do around these situations," he said.
Purple and black bunting hung across the entrance of CPD headquarters on Saturday in honor of Rivera, a four-year veteran of the force, and a mother.
No funeral services or other memorial arrangements for Rivera have yet been announced.
No charges have been filed against either of the people in custody.
Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, now chief of police in Willow Springs, said this investigation could take longer than others, because of the complicating factors involving multiple officers.
Chicago police and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability were investigating the shooting.
