Bailee Lynn Rios

Introduction

Bailee Lynn Rios is a 36-year-old Simi Valley woman who was booked on suspicion of murder after police said she drove her SUV the wrong way down a Los Angeles street, ran a red light and slammed into a Metro bus in Chatsworth, killing two people and injuring six more. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed she was booked on Wednesday morning, September 16, 2026, facing two murder counts, with bail set at $4.03 million. The crash also set off a horrific chain of events: it drew a news helicopter to the story, and that chopper later crashed, killing three more people.

Background Information

Rios was driving a gray 2004 Ford Expedition on the evening of Tuesday, September 15, 2026, when the crash happened near the intersection of Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue in Chatsworth. According to Ventura County court records, she was convicted of misdemeanor drug possession in 2016 after pleading guilty; she was charged with the same offense in 2022, but that case was dismissed, and she was instead convicted in the 2022 case of driving with a suspended license.

A close friend, Brad Aragon — son of the late boxing great “Golden Boy” Art Aragon — told the New York Post he met Rios 11 years ago in Los Angeles, when he was dealing drugs after his father’s death; he said Rios was the one person who stood by him when he went to prison, that she went to rehab herself after seeing what his downfall did, and that when he got out “she was clean.” He said she had encouraged him to start a YouTube channel helping convicts readjust to life after prison.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The account below comes from police statements, court filings and witnesses described in news reports. Rios has been booked and charged but has not been tried, and a charge is not a conviction; the DUI suspicion remains unconfirmed pending toxicology testing.

Police said the Expedition was traveling south in the northbound lanes of De Soto Avenue — the wrong way — when Rios ran a red light at Nordhoff Street, nearly struck another vehicle, and T-boned a Metro Line 166 bus that was crossing the intersection, leaving the SUV partially inside the bus. A witness told ABC7 the SUV swerved into oncoming traffic and reached “freeway speed” before impact, generating “the loudest sound I could imagine.” The Los Angeles Fire Department counted eight patients: six were taken to hospitals and two were pronounced dead at the scene. Surveillance showed the impact “fully ejected one passenger from the bus and partially ejected a second,” according to an LAPD news release.

Hours before the crash, Rios sent a close friend a text that in hindsight reads as a warning. At 1:24 p.m. that Tuesday — about five hours before the collision — she wrote to Aragon: “Brad, it’s not a joking matter on this bf thing its serious and im honestly scared but yes of course imma come see you.” He told the Post she had recently said she was “associating with certain people that she shouldn’t be associating with.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The Los Angeles County medical examiner identified the dead as Gage Weida, 31, described by his family as a “kind, caring, and selfless son” who was on his way to work, and Daniel Castillo, 46, whose daughter told Eyewitness News he was “an amazing person.”

Rios was identified by police as the driver and booked on Wednesday morning on suspicion of murder, facing two murder counts; her bail was set at $4.03 million. Authorities said she was suspected of reckless driving and running a red light combined with a possible DUI still being tested. “I thought she was on the straight-and-narrow path. I was surprised that she’d be so careless. She must be held accountable,” Aragon told the New York Post. Rios’ cousin, Katelyn Trinity, wrote on Facebook: “I’ve never stopped loving you and praying for you and I promise I never will. No matter what. Right or wrong. Forever.”

The crash’s aftermath spread far beyond the bus: media coverage of it put a news helicopter over Chatsworth that Tuesday evening, and the chopper went down in a fiery crash that killed pilot George Marciniw, reporter Eliana Moreno and a bystander on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia.

Current Status

Rios, who was among the injured in the crash, is being held in lieu of $4.03 million bail on the murder charges, and the case is expected to move to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing review; police said toxicology results on the suspected DUI are still pending. No trial date exists yet, and she remains legally not guilty unless and until a court determines otherwise.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 36, Rios faces a potential sentence measured in decades if convicted — her friend told the New York Post, “She could do 45 to life” — on charges that already label two deaths as murders rather than accidents. The crash she is accused of causing is also indirectly linked to three more deaths in the helicopter crash that followed, tying her case to one of Los Angeles’ deadliest days for local TV news. Whatever the court’s final judgment, the friend who once credited her with helping him turn his life around now says he was planning to fly to Los Angeles for an October visit — the crash happened five hours after her last text to him.