After Officer Carlos Baker fatally shot his partner Krystal Rivera, the Chicago cop told investigators he would “die for her.”But newly released body camera footage shows Baker ran for cover after he fired the deadly gunshot and took more than 90 seconds before checking on Rivera as she was gasp ing for breath.The footage, released Friday by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, follows Baker and Rivera as they chase an armed man into a Chatham apartment on June 5, 2025. After Baker kicks down the door, they’re met by a second man, who aims a rifle at them.That’s when Baker turns and appears to stumble before he shoots Rivera and runs up a stairwell. After calling for backup and initially reporting that he and Rivera were fired upon, Baker tends to Rivera and carries her downstairs, where other officers are waiting. During an interview with COPA, Baker told investigators he was “best friends” with Rivera and that he “would never” intentionally shoot her. He said he realized he was the shooter only when he checked his gun at Area Two detective headquarters and noticed that a bullet was missing.“I was lost and confused. I was in denial that I even fired my gun,” he told investigators, according to recordings of interviews obtained by the Illinois Answers Project and Chicago Sun-Times.Baker said he was willing to risk his life to help Rivera, and he recalled thinking, “I will die for her, that I had to get to her.”But Rivera’s family has said that Baker “left her to die.”A romantic relationship Yolanda Rivera, mother of Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera, is comforted by attorney Antonio Romanucci (left) and Rivera’s stepfather, Rico Thompson, after calling for an independent investigation into her daughter’s death in July 2025. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times Rivera’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year alleging Baker had been struggling to accept her daughter's decision to end their romantic relationship when he fatally shot her during the foot chase.The lawsuit, filed in Cook County court against Baker and the Chicago Police Department, says the breakup happened after Rivera found out that Baker was living with another woman while dating Rivera. Rivera threatened to tell his live-in girlfriend about their relationship.The lawsuit says Baker showed up uninvited at Rivera’s home the day before he shot her. After the shooting, he failed to provide medical aid or acknowledge he was the shooter, according to the lawsuit.Baker told COPA that he and Rivera had “no more than” three intimate encounters and denied ever being in a “relationship.” He suggested that they work together as partners on the Gresham District tactical team and said they kept hanging out after they were in separate relationships.During an interview with COPA, Baker expressed his affection for his partner.“I just want to speak to Krystal and say I love you and that I miss you,” he said. “I will never forget you. ... I won’t let you down, I promise. That’s it.” Officer Krystal Rivera talks to the media after graduating from the Chicago Police Academy in October 2021. Rivera was shot and killed by her partner, Carlos Baker, during a foot pursuit in June 2025.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times ‘I thought I was about to die’Baker’s union president, John Catanzara, defended Baker’s conduct after the body camera video was released."Many officers would have ran down the … stairs possibly right away ... subjecting themselves to then get shot,” Catanzara said. “And then you'd have two shot officers on the staircase if the offenders were still in the apartment.”Baker told investigators he thought he was in a “fatal funnel” when he saw a man aiming a rifle at him after breaching the apartment door, using a tactical term for a dangerous confined space.“I thought I was about to die in that doorway because action, as we’re taught, action beats reaction,” he said. “I dove out of the way, and that was when I heard a pop.”Authorities arrested and charged one man, accused of pointing a gun toward Baker once he was in the apartment, within a couple days of the shooting. A second man, the one who Baker and Rivera had chased into the apartment, was arrested and charged about two weeks later.A judge initially barred the release of any material related to the two criminal cases or the administrative case opened against Baker after the shooting. The order prevented COPA from releasing videos within 60 days of the shooting, which is required by city ordinance.The publisher of the Illinois Answers Project, the Chicago Sun-Times and other news organizations asked the judge to undo her secrecy order last summer. She declined, but an appeals court overturned her order in March as “an abuse of discretion.”More videos haven’t been releasedCOPA ultimately released only two videos related to Rivera’s death. Records show the agency has at least a dozen more in its file.In the shooting death of Adam Toledo, the city agency released 23 body-worn camera video files. In the shooting death of Dexter Reed, the agency released 17 of those files, including officers who arrived after the shooting.Antonio Romanucci, the attorney for Rivera’s family, said the videos released Friday were part of a “curated narrative meant to invent a false truth.”“We know there is a considerable amount of body-worn camera footage in the immediate moments after Krystal was shot that has not been released,” Romanucci said in a written statement. Officer Krystal Rivera was shot and killed by her partner, Carlos Baker, after they chased a man into a building in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue in June 2025.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times “COPA and the Chicago Police Department should not select only the audio and video portions they believe relevant in order to perfect a cover story.”But Shannon Hayes, deputy chief of investigations for COPA, said the agency didn’t withhold any videos it would have normally released. “I determined what relates to the use of force,” she said.Hayes said that the agency looks “at all the video and determines what relates to the incident we’re investigating.“That’s the language from the video release policy — the materials related to the incident,” she said. “Consistency in process doesn't necessarily mean consistency in outcome.”A checkered pastBaker had been the subject of more than a dozen misconduct complaints by the time authorities say he inadvertently shot and killed Rivera as they confronted the two armed men inside an apartment filled with guns and drugs.Baker accrued five of those complaints as a probationary officer, when he could have been summarily fired because he had few union protections.During that time, Baker was accused of flashing a gun at a woman he’d met online while she was on a date with another man at a North Side bar. The woman later refused to cooperate with investigators, and Baker faced no disciplinary action in that case, records show.Baker applied to join the Gresham District’s tactical team in March 2024, but Patrol Chief Jon Hein quashed the move, citing Baker’s disciplinary history, according to an internal memo.After submitting a second application, in January 2025, Baker got a spot on the tactical team, a coveted and competitive position that’s often used as a stepping stone for promotions.Between the two applications, Baker ran into more trouble.He failed to activate his lights or sirens as he chased a stolen car in June 2024 that ultimately went flying into the air and wrecked into six other vehicles, records show. Baker then accidentally fired his Taser while chasing the driver over a fence. He was docked two days of pay over the crash.Each time he applied to the team, he had the backing of his district commander, Michael Tate. Tate has since been promoted to street deputy, a high-ranking position responsible for responding to and commanding the scene at major events citywide. Chicago Police Officer Carlos BakerChicago Police Department ‘My life is ruined’COPA hasn’t announced its findings in the investigation into Rivera’s death.At one point, Baker told investigators he was “being gaslit and mentally drained” having to rewatch the body camera footage to answer for his actions that night.Baker told investigators he had difficulties living in Chicago and dating since the shooting.“I did nothing wrong. And the whole world is making me seem like a monster. … I can’t go out. I can’t do anything. I can’t talk to girls because every female thinks I’m either this monster from this shooting,” he said.“That’s what hurts,” he said. “My life is ruined.”Baker said he didn’t “have time to render aid” to Rivera when he was asked about his decision to drag her down the stairs.“It wasn’t going to work,” he said. “I knew she had to get to a Level One trauma center to surgery, effective immediately.”In another interview, COPA investigators focused on his decision to climb the stairs away from where the gunfire came from. He said he was shielding himself from what he thought was “the line of fire, where the rifle was initially pointed at me.”Baker said he realized Rivera was hurt when he heard her gasping for air.“And, in your estimation, how long did you remain at the top of the stairs?” an investigator asked.“The whole night felt like seconds,” he said. “It all felt like it happened in a second. So I don’t recall. I don’t know.” Related Chicago police officer was ‘unintentionally’ shot and killed by partner during Chatham foot pursuit Family of Chicago cop killed in botched chase sues Chicago Police Department and partner who shot her Chicago cop who inadvertently shot and killed his partner has a lengthy disciplinary record in a short career ...read more read less