LOS ANGELES — An SUV driver was under the influence of drugs when she swerved into the wrong lane, blew a red light and slammed into a Los Angeles city bus, killing two riders, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged her with murder.
It was a tragedy compounded by the subsequent fatal crash of a TV news helicopter that had been covering the collision.
Bailee Lynn Rios was speeding and impaired when she drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue and struck a vehicle before plowing into a city bus on Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told a news conference.
Rios, 36, faces two charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of the two people on the bus, identified as Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31.
Rios was being held on $4.1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Friday. Online court records did not list a lawyer who might speak on her behalf, and the public defender's office said it had not been appointed to represent her.
Reached Wednesday, her mother Cindy Rios said she was shocked and saddened by the string of events. She said she had not spoken to Bailee Lynn Rios since her arrest and had not been contacted by law enforcement. She could not immediately be reached Thursday for additional comment.
The news helicopter crash killed both people on board, pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno, and a man on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the helicopter caught fire.
In surveillance footage obtained by NBC4 Los Angeles, the helicopter can be seen dropping out of the sky on a slight diagonal angle and landing behind a few trees and other objects. Moments later, a large plume of black smoke and flames erupt from the crash site.
Hundreds gathered in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday evening for a candlelit vigil honoring the victims of both crashes. Friends and family members brought photos of their loved ones and joined in prayer.
Crash victim liked people-watching on bus, daughter says
Castillo's daughter, Johaunna Castillo, said he was on the way home from his job at a car parts warehouse Tuesday, on the same bus he took every day.
"The back was his favorite seat," she said. "He liked people-watching."
While she moved to Georgia with her mother and siblings as a teen and now attends college there, she spent her school breaks and summers in LA with her father. When they were apart, he called her after work every single day.
"He would just tell me about all the people he's met and all the things that happened on the bus," she said.
That day, he told her he was getting on the bus and would call her when he was walking home. But the call never came.
She said her father was a hard worker, and a bright and lively person who touched anyone he interacted with. His co-workers, friends, and even many people who only knew him in passing have reached out to share "how much of a light that he was," she said.
"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," Johaunna Castillo said. Hundreds have donated to an online fundraiser for funeral expenses.
Clues to helicopter crash may lie in broadcast video
There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter to go down, but investigators said significant clues could come from the last seconds of video the crew broadcast. In it, an alarm could be heard inside the helicopter's cockpit as it lost altitude.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said Wednesday that the video is "probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far."
Just after the beeping starts, a woman's voice says "uh oh." The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and starts losing altitude. The woman says "You can't pull up?" before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm suggests a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in the main rotor speed. He said the pilot appeared to be trying to perform an emergency maneuver to use the wind to force the rotor to spin again.
The NTSB is also investigating the bus collision.
Moreno and Marciniw both worked for Angel City Air, a helicopter contractor, and provided aerial coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52.
Moreno, born in Orange County, joined Angel City Air in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, NBC4 said.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts.
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