Fallen Chicago Police Officer Accidentally Struck by Partner's Gunfire
By Caroline Kubzansky
Source Chicago Tribune
What to know
- Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera was fatally shot by her partner during a foot pursuit when a suspect pointed an AR-style pistol at them inside an apartment.
- One suspect, who had six outstanding warrants, was charged with multiple felonies, and the original suspect remains at large.
- Officers recovered multiple guns, ammunition, fake IDs and drugs from the apartment, and the incident remains under investigation.
Moments before her death Thursday night, Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera and her partner were rushing after a person they’d just attempted to stop on suspicion of having a weapon when that suspect ran into an apartment building located at 8210 S. Drexel Blvd., prosecutors said Sunday.
Inside one of the building’s apartments, Assistant State’s Attorney Joell Bisceliga said Rivera and her partner found Adrian Rucker, 25, standing behind a sofa with an AR-style pistol. The person they’d originally been chasing jumped over a couch and went down a hallway inside the apartment, Bisceglia said, while Rucker allegedly pointed the gun at Rivera’s partner, who was standing in the doorway.
Rivera’s partner fired, Bisceglia said, but mistakenly hit Rivera as she pursued the original suspect. She died of a single gunshot wound to the back, the first Chicago police officer to die on-duty this year.
Authorities on Saturday charged Rucker with armed violence, use of a firearm without a firearm owner’s identification card, possession of a fake ID and drug possession. Cook County Judge Shauna Boliker on Sunday ordered Rucker, a Freeport resident with six previously issued arrest warrants, held pending trial.
Rucker; a 26-year-old woman from Freeport; and the original suspect the officers had been chasing all got out of the apartment moments after the shooting, Bisceglia said. Rucker and the woman were both arrested about 20 minutes later, in the gated yard of a building at 8215 S. Maryland Ave.
More on OFFICER.com
Chicago Police Officer Killed in Armed Clash at Apartment
- Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera was rushed to the hospital in a cruiser, which crashed and caught fire from a vehicle malfunction, and another squad card was needed to finish the trip.
Rucker appeared in court wearing a blue button-up shirt with his hands cuffed behind his back while family members of Rivera sat huddled together in one of the first rows in Courtroom 100, marked “police officers only.” Dozens of other uniformed beat officers, sergeants and department members crowded into the rows behind them.
Bisceglia said he appeared pointing the rifle both on Rivera’s partner’s body-worn camera and on the apartment’s internal surveillance camera, and that the officer who accidentally shot Rivera identified him in a photo array as the person who had pointed the rifle at him.
The first suspect “made good on his escape,” Bisceglia said. A Police Department representative declined to comment on whether that person had since been arrested, only saying that detectives continued to investigate the case.
Officers searching the apartment found three guns, several magazines and several rounds of ammunition in the apartment, court records show. Those weapons included an AR-style pistol with an empty 60-round drum magazine, a Glock handgun and a black and tan AR-style pistol, Bisceglia said.
Police also found a scale and numerous containers of suspected crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana, Bisceglia said. An open safe in the apartment held suspected heroin, she said, and about 20 fake ID cards that showed Rucker’s picture from different states, including California and Ohio, were found in a kitchen cabinet.
Authorities had previously issued six arrest warrants for Rucker. According to police sources, those warrants are for criminal damage to property, theft under $500, and two alleged instances of domestic battery, all out of Stephenson County in northwestern Illinois.
He also had a warrant for aggravated identity theft out of northwest suburban Rolling Meadows and another for possession of fake identification out of Winnebago County, court records show. The woman had one active warrant, according to police sources.
According to Cook County Court records, Rucker was first arrested in April 2024 for alleged aggravated identity theft in Rolling Meadows. He was released pending trial, records show, but failed to appear for a June court date and Judge Ellen Beth Mandeltort issued an arrest warrant in July 2024.
Assistant Public Defender Joseph Stachler pointed out that the court had not yet received the body-worn camera footage or surveillance tape that anchored much of the state’s attorney’s proffer, and asked that Rucker be released pending trial to live with his mother and two brothers. Boliker ordered him held, citing his past criminal convictions for domestic violence, disorderly conduct and battery as well as past failures to appear for court.
Rucker’s next appearance is set for Thursday.
The woman who was arrested with Rucker has not been charged with anything related to Rivera’s death, but appeared in Cook County bond court Saturday regarding her arrest warrant out of Stephenson County, court records show. Her next court date is scheduled for Thursday.
Rivera’s death brought a wave of support messages from city leaders last week. Funeral information for her had not been released Sunday.
____
©2025 Chicago Tribune.
Visit at chicagotribune.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.