Murder Charge
Prosecutors charge the LA driver whose wrong-way SUV crash killed two bus riders and led to a deadly helicopter crash.
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, faces two counts of second-degree murder. Prosecutors filed the charges Thursday. She was high on drugs, they say, when she blew a red light and slammed her SUV into a city bus.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Rios drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue Tuesday, then struck one vehicle before hitting the bus. Two riders died, Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, according to NPR and ABC News. A judge set her bail at $4.1 million. She's due in court Friday.
The crash triggered a second disaster. About two hours later, a news helicopter covering the wreck for NBC4 went down in Chatsworth, killing pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno, along with a bystander on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia, The Guardian reported. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it a "very, very, very tragic day," the Guardian said. Five deaths in a matter of hours.
No cause for the crash has been confirmed. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar called the crew's final broadcast video "probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far," ABC News reported. A cockpit alarm sounds in the footage. "Uh oh," a woman's voice says, then, "You can't pull up?" The transmission cuts out before impact. Aviation expert Jeff Guzzetti told ABC News the alarm suggested a loss of engine power and a drop in rotor speed.
Cindy Rios, the suspect's mother, told NPR she was shocked and saddened. She hadn't spoken to her daughter since the arrest. Police hadn't contacted her either. Court records list no lawyer for Rios, and the public defender's office said it hasn't been appointed to the case.
Castillo was riding home from his job at a car parts warehouse when he died, his daughter Johaunna Castillo told NPR. He rode that bus every day, always in the same seat, near the back.
"He liked people-watching," she said.
Federal investigators are still examining the wreckage. Hundreds gathered for a candlelit vigil in Chatsworth on Thursday night. A separate fundraiser for Castillo's funeral has drawn hundreds of donations, NPR reported.