Officer Krystal Rivera after the police academy graduation ceremony in October 2021 at Navy Pier. She was shot and killed by her partner, Officer Carlos Baker, during a foot pursuit in June 2025.
Officer Krystal Rivera talks to the media after graduating from the Chicago police academy in October 2021. Rivera was later shot and killed by her partner, Carlos Baker, during a foot pursuit in June 2025. (Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)

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Tom Schuba is a reporter and editor at the Chicago Sun-Times focused on criminal justice issues, and he previously covered the legalization of marijuana across Illinois. He has earned a National Headliner Award for a series of stories investigating the state’s troubled cannabis testing regulations, among other prizes for his reporting.

Peter Nickeas joined Better Government Association as an investigative reporter in 2023. He previously covered policing for CNN and violence for the Chicago Tribune. He was a 2019 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and a 2018 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

Casey Toner, a Chicago native, has been an Illinois Answers reporter since 2016, taking the lead on numerous projects about criminal justice and politics. His series on police shootings in suburban Cook County resulted in a state law requiring procedural investigations of all police shootings in Illinois. Before he joined Illinois Answers, he wrote for the Daily Southtown and was a statewide reporter for Alabama Media Group, a consortium of Alabama newspapers. Outside of work, he enjoys watching soccer and writing music.