Murder Charges Filed in Crash That Preceded LA News Copter Crash

A motorist was arrested on murder charges after authorities say she slammed her SUV into a city bus in Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring six others in a prelude to a second deadly tragedy: the fiery crash of a TV news helicopter that was covering the collision. Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, was arrested Tuesday night and was being held at a Los Angeles jail with bail set at $4 million, police said Wednesday.

• The helicopter, which was used by NBC and Telemundo, crashed about two hours after police say Rios drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue, ran a red light, and struck a vehicle before hitting the bus, the AP reports. One passenger was fully ejected from the bus and another was partially ejected, police said. Witnesses say the SUV was moving at "freeway speeds" and "just t-boned" after entering the intersection with no apparent attempt to slow down, KTLA reports.

The two people who died in the bus crash were identified as Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31. NBC4 Los Angeles reported that two people aboard the helicopter—reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw—were killed when the chopper went down Tuesday in the Chatsworth neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. A person on the ground, identified as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, died in a parking lot. He was from Guatemala, the country's consulate confirmed.

• The crash happened as news crews were reporting on the bus crash. There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter crash, but an alarm could be heard sounding inside the helicopter's cockpit as it lost altitude in the final seconds of video the crew broadcast before the crash.
• Just after the beeping noise 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.
• "That video is probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far," National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said Wednesday at a news briefing. The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, went down near a large storage facility. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the helicopter caught fire.

• Moreno was a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station's aerial coverage. She and Marciniw were both employees of Angel City Air, which operated the chopper for the station. 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, the NBC4 website said. Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
• A friend of Marciniw, George Kapoyan, came to lay flowers. Kapoyan remembered him as "a gentle, humble giant" who took all the time he needed to conduct preflight safety checks and was very thorough when communicating with air traffic control. "You felt very comfortable flying with him," Kapoyan said.
• "I think a lot of us are still trying to process what happened, this terrible loss," NBC4 reporter Lauren Coronado told viewers early Wednesday as she stood near the crash site. A hazmat crew was cleaning up jet fuel, she said. In a tribute to Moreno and Marciniw, the newscast referred to them as "the team in the sky," saying Moreno often posted videos from her job and was in awe of the view. Anchor Lynette Romero held a colleague's hand and wiped away tears after hearing Moreno's voice when one of her posts was played.