LA Driver Charged With Murder in Fatal Bus Crash
LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors charged a 36-year-old woman with two counts of second-degree murder on Thursday after she allegedly drove while impaired on narcotics, sped the wrong way down a busy avenue, and slammed her SUV into a Metro bus, killing two passengers — a crash that was compounded when a television news helicopter covering the scene crashed nearby, killing three more people.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office identified the suspect as Bailee Lynn Rios of Simi Valley. She faces two counts of murder in the deaths of bus riders Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, along with charges of driving under the influence of a drug and reckless driving, according to the NPR. Rios, who was injured in the collision, is being held on $4.1 million bail and was scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
“The tragedy of the Rios car crash was absolutely preventable,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a news conference. He said Rios was speeding and impaired by narcotics when she drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down De Soto Avenue, ran a red light, and struck the bus. Investigators found hard drugs in the vehicle.
A Night of Cascading Tragedy
The collisions unfolded in the Chatsworth neighborhood of the northern San Fernando Valley on the evening of Tuesday, September 15. According to the Guardian, Rios was driving south in the northbound lanes when she entered the intersection at Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue, nearly struck another vehicle, and broadsided the Metro Line 166 bus before 5:15 p.m.
One bus passenger was fully ejected and another was partially ejected, police said. Video from the scene showed the SUV wedged into the middle of the bus. Six other riders were hospitalized.
Weida, one of the two men killed, was days away from his birthday, when his parents had planned to visit. His partner of eight years, Autumn Raiff, said he had been on his way to work when the crash occurred, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Castillo’s daughter, Johaunna, remembered her father as a devoted commuter who took the same bus home from his job at a car parts warehouse every day. The back was his favorite seat, she said.
“He liked people-watching,” she told the NBC News. “That’s who he was and that’s how he should be remembered — someone who brought a lot of joy and love into people’s lives.”
News Helicopter Goes Down
As the bus crash drew television crews from across Los Angeles, a news helicopter hovering over the scene went down about an hour later. The Eurocopter AS350 B2 Écureuil, operated by Angel City Air for NBC4 and its Spanish-language sister station Telemundo 52, crashed shortly before 7 p.m. in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, near a self-storage facility.
Killed aboard were reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw. A third victim, 29-year-old Edy Gutiérrez Mejia, a tourist from Cuilapa, Guatemala who had arrived in Los Angeles that day, was struck on the ground. Two people on the ground were injured, and the fiery wreck damaged four cars and two storage containers.
Broadcast footage from the helicopter captured its final seconds, including a cockpit alarm and a woman’s voice saying “uh oh” and “You can’t pull up?” before the video ended. Fabian Salazar, the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge, said the recording is “probably the most important piece of evidence that we have discovered so far,” and that investigators would send a pristine copy to a lab for sound spectrum analysis.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm suggests a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in main rotor speed, adding that the pilot appeared to be attempting an emergency maneuver to use the wind to spin the rotor again. The cause remains under investigation, and NTSB wreckage was removed from the site on Thursday as authorities appealed to the public for witness video.
Grief Across a City
Hundreds gathered Thursday evening at St. John Eudes Parish in Chatsworth for a candlelit vigil honoring all five victims, where a choir serenaded mourners and loved ones brought photographs and joined in prayer.
Moreno, born in Orange County and a 2010 Chapman University graduate, joined Angel City Air the same year and had flown with Marciniw since 2023, NBC4 said. Colleagues remembered Marciniw, a longtime churchgoer who graduated from Burbank High School in 1974, as humble and kind. The Radio & Television News Association of Southern California noted that Moreno, known to viewers as “Eli in the heli,” had won a Golden Mike Award in 2023. The two will be included in the Fallen Journalists Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city’s “hearts are with those impacted by the bus collision and the helicopter crash.” Governor Gavin Newsom offered condolences to the NBC4 family and thanked first responders.
What Comes Next
Rios is expected to be arraigned Friday. If convicted of second-degree murder, she could face up to life in prison. Hochman said his office will wait for the federal investigation to conclude before deciding whether to file charges related to the helicopter crash, which killed three more people. Preliminary NTSB findings are expected within about 30 days, though a final report is months away.
The episode underscores the risks journalists accept in covering breaking news from the air. According to a review of federal accident records, at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters have occurred in the United States since 2000, killing 16 people.
For the families in Chatsworth, the losses remain personal. Johaunna Castillo told NBC News she still struggles with the milestones her father will miss — including her college graduation.
“Imagining not having him there is the worst thing you can imagine,” she said.