When John Chris Rickman agreed to drive his friend home late at night on Aug. 15, 2016, it was what his dad said he always did – there for his friends in need, ready to help in any way he can.
More than a year later and Rickman’s girlfriend describes that night in three words.
“Horror,” Erica Frias says, “Tragic. Awful.”
Frias describes her relationship with Rickman as a dream-come-true. But that night in August in Sylmar, that dream became a nightmare.
“He was everything to me,” she says, “he was to me, what you wish for all your life.”
LAPD Valley Bureau Homicide released surveillance video of the shooting for the first time in the hopes someone might remember what happened or recognize the vehicle involved. You can see the flashes of the gun as the shots are fired, then a surviving victim running passed the camera while the shooters take off in what appears to be a white Chevy Silverado – and then you can see Rickman, possibly not even realizing he was also hit, driving away to where he’d eventually crash into a parked car and die.
“The only thing he was guilty of was being a friend, offering a friend a ride,” his father John Godinez says, “I think a parent should never have to bury their child you know? He had everything going for him and have it all taken away for some stupid reason, so tragically.”
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LAPD Detective Kristine Klotz was at the scene that August morning.
“The victim’s vehicle pulls in right in front of this house,” she says, describing what she saw in the video, “when it comes to a stop, he actually turns off his lights, takes his foot off the brake.”
Det. Klotz says Rickman and his friend thought they were being followed and had pulled over and shut off the lights to try to hide. But when his friend got out of the car and approached the truck, it moved into motion something that can never be reversed.
“He believed he knew who they were,” Det. Klotz says, “unfortunately when he got closer and got a view of the occupants in the vehicle, he realized he did not know them.”
Multiple shots rang out.
“The bullets actually traveled through our surviving victim and struck John Chris Rickman,” she says.
Frias remembers getting a phone call.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she says, “I screamed. I cried. It’s still to this day, unbelievable.”
Now she and Rickman’s family – including the three young children he leaves behind – is hoping the surveillance video could shed new light on the case, and bring the killer to justice.
“It’s destroyed us all,” Frias says, “none of us are the same anymore. You don’t smile the same, you don’t laugh the same.”
Anyone with information – even if it’s offered anonymously – is urgently asked to contact LAPD Valley Homicide Bureau at 818-374-1948.
