A 17-year-old teenager from Los Angeles, who last year ran into a woman and her baby in a stroller in Venice, California, was fatally shot in Palmdale last week.
After hitting the mother and sending her flying over the stroller, the teenager only received a slap on the wrist as he was punished with a few months of diversionary camp.
Kristopher Baca,17, a Palmdale resident, was found by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shot dead on Wednesday, January 18, in a driveway on 11th Street East.
During the hit-and-run last year, authorities did not publicly identify the boy due to his age, but he pleaded guilty to the accident.
The medical examiner’s office confirmed the teenager’s death on Friday. There is no indication that his death is connected to the 2021 hit-and-run, and the police have not released a suspect description.
Just before the shooting, Baca was reportedly at a fast food restaurant, talking to a girl. He was walking home alone when a car pulled up next to him. No one exited the vehicle, but someone inside the car started arguing with Baca, before shots were fired. A bullet fatally hit the teenager, and the car quickly sped off.
The young mother from last year’s hit-and-run moved her family from Los Angeles to a safer place. The mother, only identified as Rachel, said she was relieved and saddened by the news, adding that the universe delivered the justice denied to them in court, but it was much harsher than what he would have gotten in a court of law.
The case received nationwide attention last year after a viral video of the attack on the mother and her baby. The County District Attorney for Los Angeles, George Gascon, sought a seven-month sentence in a juvenile probation center as a punishment for the teen offender. A juvenile center is a less severe punishment for young offenders than military school but harsher than a summer camp.
The District Attorney’s office told reporters that the sentence was an appropriate punishment for the then 16-year-old.
A video of the hit-and-run shows a car driving straight into a woman pushing her baby in a stroller. The accident’s impact sends the mother and child flying into the air. The woman, who was pushing herself against the wall as the car approached, got hit by the car, sending her tumbling over the hood.
She was not seriously injured, as the video shows her springing back to her feet and rushing to the stroller to check on the infant.
Onlookers chased down the car. Police found marijuana in the car and said the teen was driving while under the influence of drugs. Because he was a minor, police released him to his parents, and they did not consider the DUI a violent crime.
