Fellow cop ‘unintentionally' shot slain officer while confronting suspect, according to police, who were holding at least two in custody
The department announced Rivera had been struck by friendly fire about a day after she died. She and the Gresham (6th) district tactical team she had been a part of were trying to conduct an investigatory stop in the Chatham neighborhood, police have said, and encountered an armed suspect after chasing a person into an apartment building on the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue.
An autopsy conducted Friday found that Rivera had died of a gunshot wound to the back.
'As released in yesterday's preliminary statement, an officer discharged his weapon during the encounter with an armed offender,' the statement read. 'Further investigation revealed the only weapon discharged during this incident was the weapon of the officer, whose gunfire unintentionally struck Officer Rivera.'
Rivera, 36, a four-year veteran of the police force, leaves behind a young daughter. She lived in the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Police said they were continuing to investigate the suspect the tactical team met in the apartment, who allegedly pointed a rifle at the officers.
'This offender remains in custody,' the police department said in a statement. 'Detectives also continue to investigate the circumstances that led to the investigative stop preceding the encounter.'
At least two people remained in custody as of late Friday night, though Supt. Larry Snelling said 'several' people were initially arrested following the shooting.
Just after the time of the shooting Thursday, officers found and detained a 25-year-old man and 26-year-old woman in a gated yard near an apartment building at 8215 S. Maryland Ave., according to police sources. The man was described in arrest paperwork as being armed with a rifle.
According to police sources, authorities had issued multiple active warrants for the man out of Cook County and Stephenson County and Winnebago County, both in northwestern Illinois. The woman had one active warrant, according to police sources, and both are listed in arrest records as residents of Freeport in northwestern Illinois.
Rivera was the first city police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year.
The last cop to suffer fatal injuries on the job was Enrique Martinez, 26. Martinez, who was also assigned to the same Gresham District as Rivera, was fatally shot in November in the 8200 block of South Ingleside Avenue— just one street east of where Rivera was killed Thursday.
She was widely mourned by city officials and her fellow officers, who praised her work ethic and asked Chicagoans to keep her family in their prayers.
Investigators recovered three weapons at the scene and were still reviewing body-worn camera footage, Snelling said after the shooting, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability was investigating.
After the shooting, police officers took their wounded colleague to the hospital in a squad car, which crashed and caught fire on the way there because of what Snelling described as a malfunction with the vehicle. Another squad car finished the trip, Snelling said, and the officers in the first car were 'doing fine.'
'The way that she worked, it was evident that she did love her job,' Snelling said. 'She wanted to make Chicago a better place.'
Rivera's mother, reached by phone, declined to comment.
In a statement posted to social media, the mayor asked Chicagoans to keep Rivera's family in their prayers, especially her young daughter who will 'who will miss her mom for the rest of her life.'
Rivera had an 'unmatched work ethic,' Johnson said.
'Officer Rivera was a hero who served on the force for four years. She had a long career in front of her. A bright future was stolen from her family and from her loved ones,' he said in the statement.
Family friend Alicia Headrick described Rivera as someone who was 'unapologetically herself and wanted everyone else to be able to tap into that as well.'
Headrick, 28 and a Grundy County sheriff's deputy, said she mostly stayed in touch with Rivera via social media. While they occasionally talked about working for two very different law enforcement agencies, Headrick mainly remembered Rivera cheering her on and likened her to an older sister. Rivera had been a single mother for some time and was ferociously independent, she said.
'(Rivera) just always wanted to make a life and career for herself and for her daughter,' Headrick said. 'She had a very pure heart that just wanted to serve other people.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Chicago's taxicab regulations have fallen apart
As Chicagoans and tourists spilled out of Navy Pier on Wednesday night, a crowd of taxicabs waited for the post-shows and post-fireworks crowd. Their roof-lights all were lit, indicating availability for a ride. Chicago's taxicab regulations require those drivers to take folks without prejudice or favor wherever they want to go, to do so by the most expeditious route and to charge them a regulated price, perhaps accompanied by a nice tip for good service. The cost is determined by a meter. But none of the cabs we tried were willing to use their meters Wednesday night. Once we saw what was going on, we stuck our heads in and out of more than half a dozen, just to make sure this was not a rogue outlier or two. But it was ubiquitous. Cab number 2346 wanted $40 for a ride just a few blocks west. Cab 5660 wanted $50. Others had varying prices, all of which were at least three times the official rate. Tourists and Chicagoans alike were forced into sudden negotiations in what clearly has become an unregulated Wild West, more akin to one of those international cities where cabs don't have meters and routinely prey on visitors. The situation wasn't just outside Navy Pier, either. Even blocks away beyond Michigan Avenue, no cab would offer us a meter-regulated ride into the South Loop. And it wasn't just Wednesday night, either. As we told our story, we heard tell of many other times when cabs were ditching their meters en masse. Basically, whenever there was a special event or bad weather and Uber and Lyft had surge pricing in play. We're not unsympathetic toward cab drivers and we've lamented before how this city's full-on embrace of ride-share companies decimated our once-thriving taxi industry. Not unlike the great parking meter scam, which loses this city tens of millions of dollars a year, City Hall was taken in by the initially low rates those companies used to get a toehold into a market where they had spread lots of money around local politics, and even hired a few of the council folks who they wanted on their side. Now, those prices have risen, and if you stick out your hand on the street, as we all used to be able to do in the city's center and many of its neighborhoods, good luck to you. You don't have to be an economist to see the problem. Cab drivers can see the surge pricing and they want in. Of course, they don't reduce their prices when demand is low. Oh no. And in our experience Wednesday, and also following a Soldier Field concert, they are charging far above even the elevated ride-share price. This is both illegal and predatory. Meters protect people from rip-offs. Cab drivers breaking the law with apparent impunity is damaging to visitors to the city, especially since Navy Pier, for all its success, has no light rail or other visitor-friendly transportation to get people over there. Even the trolley rides are long gone. And for many visitors, bus routes are confusing. It's anarchy out there when you are looking for a ride during a busy period. Clearly, this city's taxi regulations are going unenforced. We've been around for a while. This did not widely happen in previous administrations. No functional U.S. city that we know allows a total free-for-all when it comes to taxi rates; such a policy fails to protect citizens who need them and who certainly don't want to have to get into an aggressive negotiation every time they slip into the back seat. That does not make people feel safe. Chicagoans and visitors to our city deserve clarity and fairness. Cabs, clearly, are out of control. Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration needs to wake up to the problem, crack down on the scofflaws and enforce its own regulations.
Chicago Tribune
7 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Ald. Debra Silverstein: Report shows a stunning rise in antisemitism in Chicago. The mayor needs to do better.
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations, or CCHR, just released its annual report on hate crimes and incidents in Chicago, which showed that anti-Jewish hate crimes rose a stunning 58% last year. Antisemitism accounted for more than 37% of all hate crimes reported to the Chicago Police Department in 2024. Jewish Chicagoans make up only 3% of the city's total population, yet we were the target of more than a third of all the hate crimes reported in the entire city. This isn't a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Anti-Jewish hate crimes are up sharply across the nation. Notable and shocking examples include the killing of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, the firebombing attack on rallygoers in Colorado who were raising awareness about the Israeli hostages and the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence in Pennsylvania. Chicago was also rocked last year by an antisemitic terrorist attack in my own West Ridge community. An Orthodox man was shot in the shoulder while walking to synagogue on Shabbat. The victim was dressed in traditional Jewish garb, and he was only saved because his attacker's gun jammed. Police investigations revealed the shooter was specifically targeting Jewish individuals and institutions. Other hateful incidents have been happening across the city, including the painting of swastikas in Little Village and antisemitic graffiti in Hyde Park, and the placement of anti-Jewish cards on car windows in multiple wards. The incidents in CCHR's report have affected communities across Chicago. In response to this disturbing report, Mayor Brandon Johnson is finally starting to pay attention. He has authorized CCHR to convene public hearings on the rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes in Chicago, echoing a call I made last month with the support of the majority of the City Council. I fear this is too little, too late. As alderman of the 50th Ward, home to the largest Orthodox Jewish community in the city of Chicago, I have been raising the alarm about rising antisemitism for years. I hear daily from my community about antisemitic graffiti outside synagogues and the harassing of residents who are visibly Jewish on our streets. The response from City Hall has been anemic at best and often openly hostile to the concerns and fears of the Jewish community. Johnson has made it clear that the safety of Chicago's Jews takes a back seat to his progressive goals, and I worry how receptive he will be to making actual changes in response to the findings of these hearings. I am pleased that the hearings, which will be held in September, will be convened by CCHR. Its members have been tremendous allies to the Jewish community and to vulnerable communities across Chicago. I trust Commissioner Nancy Andrade to preside over fair and balanced hearings and to hear from voices that represent the vast majority of Chicago's Jewish community — even from groups that have feuded with Johnson in the past — including the Jewish United Fund, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and Simon Wiesenthal Center. Jay Tcath: The phrase 'Free Palestine' is freeing no one, but it is killing some of usHowever, I have concerns about whether the mayor's office will allow CCHR to develop an accurate report that reflects the genuine fears of Chicago's Jewish community, especially if the hearings reveal that the mayor's progressive allies have contributed to the antisemitic environment in the city. The CCHR hate crimes report indicates that the rise in antisemitism in Chicago is fueled by misguided reactions to the Israel-Hamas war. Antisemitic people around the world have been using the war as a pretext to spew anti-Jewish hate under the cover of anti-Zionism, as if shooting at Jews in Chicago somehow makes Palestinians in Gaza safer. Much of this rhetoric in Chicago has come from the mayor's progressive allies and at events that the mayor has either praised or supported, such as the college encampments, Chicago Public Schools walkouts and protests that call to 'globalize the intifada.' How will City Hall react if Jewish CPS students testify that they were threatened and intimidated during the school protests, when the mayor already praised the students for walking out? How will the mayor respond to Jewish students who were attacked at DePaul University when his closest allies were at the encampments where knives, pellet guns and other improvised weapons were found? These extreme anti-Israel demonstrations hide under the guise of free speech but are really part of a growing movement of unchecked antisemitism masquerading as political activism. Will the mayor allow the CCHR hearings to reveal this fact or are we in for sanitized proceedings that refuse to address the root causes of anti-Jewish hate in Chicago? Can we expect actual change or just more thoughts and prayers from our city leadership? We will wait and see. But I promise that the Jewish community is tired of being silent. You will continue to hear from us as long as antisemitism remains at crisis levels. And I hope that our allies and every person of conscience in Chicago join us.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
This cuisine is rare in the Bay Area. A chef just opened a restaurant devoted to it
When Eric Rivera was in solitary confinement in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, food kept him sane. He'd sit at a desk, alone, and pretend to be taking orders and cooking at a fantasy restaurant to pass the time. In his mind, he made the Puerto Rican dishes his mother taught him, and invented his own spins, like eggs benedict with slow-roasted pork. Now, the chef, who ran a beloved Puerto Rican food business out of an Oakland liquor store until his arrest in 2017, has started that restaurant. Puerto Rican Street Cuisine opened July 15 at 1430 23rd Ave. in Oakland with dishes including chicken encebollado and tostones, deep-fried plantains. Fans flocked to the takeout window, dancing to Puerto Rican music and hanging out on the sidewalk while they waited for their food. It sold out by the end of the day. Rivera, a native of New York, is best known for Borinquen Soul, which was born as a food truck before gaining a loyal following from inside the Two Star Market liquor store until closing in 2017, and W.E.P.A. — a nod to a Puerto Rican term for 'right on' and an acronym for Where Everybody Parties At — in Jack London Square, which was featured in an episode of Guy Fieri's Food Network TV show 'Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.' That same year, Rivera's rise came to an abrupt halt when he was arrested on a robbery he says he did not commit. He served nearly six years in jail, cooking for his fellow inmates and joining a hunger strike to protest poor food quality. When Rivera returned home, friends encouraged him to start cooking again. The reception to popups was 'overwhelming,' he said. Puerto Rican Street Cuisine serves staples such as pernil, empanadas filled with shredded chicken and rice topped with beans, squash and olives. Rivera said customers still ask for a dish highlighted on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives': canoa, a maximalist, loaded fried plantain filled with ground beef, peppers, onion and cheese. He plans to offer daily specials, such as fried pork chops or mofongo (mashed plantains with pork). Expect future events in the Oakland space's backyard, which is equipped with a large smoker. Puerto Rican cuisine remains underrepresented in the Bay Area. Puerto Rican Street Cuisine is now Oakland's only dedicated Puerto Rican restaurant, since the popular La Perla moved to Castro Valley last year. Two of the Bay Area's other Puerto Rican food businesses are run by Borinquen Soul alumni: Boriqua Kitchen, the region's only Puerto Rican food truck, and the vegan Casa Borinqueña, which operated in Oakland before moving to IKEA food hall Saluhall in San Francisco. Rivera hopes his current employees will launch the next wave of Puerto Rican restaurants. He also plans to teach cooking classes to local youth and says he's in talks to sell frozen foods in grocery stores. The East Oakland space will serve as a central hub, he envisions, for training cooks and opening takeout-only locations of Puerto Rican Street Cuisine throughout the Bay Area. Puerto Rican Street Cuisine is open for takeout and delivery from 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
