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A 17-year-old teen from Los Angeles, who was behind a shocking hit-and-run incident in which a mother and her baby who was in a stroller were injured, has been shot dead.
Kristopher Baca was killed in Palmdale, California, dying from gunshot wounds on Wednesday evening as he walked alone on the street.
Baca was sentenced to just seven-months in a juvenile probation camp following the crash on August 6 2021 when he was just 15 years old.
The sickening footage of the crash went viral, showing Baca smashing his black car into the victim – who has only been identified as Rachel – as she stood to the side of the road with her eight-month-old son Charlie in a stroller.
She was thrown over the top of the vehicle as it crashed into the baby.
Incredibly the baby boy was not seriously hurt while his mother received only cuts to her elbow.
A 17-year-old from Los Angeles who was involved in this hit-and-run incident in August 2021 in which a mother and her baby in a stroller were injured has been shot dead
In the moments before Baca’s death on Wednesday, a car pulled up next to him and an argument erupted before Baca was fired upon. The car then sped off.
Earlier he had been at a fast food restaurant trying to ‘get with a girl’.
Surveillance footage captured the horrific hit-and-run incident that occurred on August 6, 2021, in Venice, California.
At the time, Rachel criticized Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon during an early release hearing for the teenager in June 2022.
Kristopher Baca was 15 at the time he was convicted of mowing down a mother and her eight-month-old baby in a horrifying hit and run. He was released early after being sentenced to just seven-months in a juvenile probation camp
When told of Baca’s death, she said she was relieved and saddened by the news.
‘The universe delivered the justice we weren’t given in court, but a much harsher punishment than he’d have been dealt in a court of law,’ she said in a statement.
‘I think I feel shorted — by the system because they didn’t hold him accountable and sad, not for him, but for his mom a little, because if George Gascon actually did his job, this kid would still be alive in jail,’ Rachel told Fox News.
The case gained national attention when Gascon’s office sought a sentence of five to seven months in juvenile probation camp, a punishment that is less severe than military school but harsher than summer camp.
The teenager was already on felony probation for poisoning a high school girl’s drink at the time of the hit-and-run and was found to be intoxicated while driving a stolen vehicle.
The victim’s family ultimately moved out of Los Angeles due to what they describe as the city’s soft-on-crime policies.
Rachel leaps up and darts towards the stroller to check on eight-month-old Charlie
Harrowing footage from the incident showed Rachel pushing Charlie in a stroller through the Venice neighborhood when the car came careering towards her.
She tried to get out of the way in the narrow alley, but the car veered towards her.
As horrified onlookers ran to help, the driver, Baca, sped off and only stopped when a pickup truck swerved to block his path.
During his sentencing in June 2022 it was decided that the teenager – when he was known only as KB – would serve his sentence at a ‘juvenile probation camp,’ rather than in juvenile detention.
Rachel, in her victim impact statement, told of the devastating impact of the teenager’s actions – who had drugs in his system at the time, but was not drunk.
‘I thought those were the last moments of our lives; we were dead,’ she wrote.
‘That feeling, along with the memory of a car accelerating directly into us, will haunt me forever.’
She described in vivid detail the horrific moment he surged towards her and her baby.
‘As the car approached me and my child, I stopped walking and moved the stroller and myself up against a building on the right side of the road to ensure that we gave the reckless driver plenty of room to pass,’ Rachel said.
‘As the car got dangerously close to us, KB turned the wheels in our direction and accelerated as he aimed to kill us.’
‘I was also told that his record would be wiped clean when he turns 18,’ she said at the time.
‘How on earth can that be? He tried to murder two innocent pedestrians. Murder. And we have video evidence. My child would be dead if I hadn’t been there to protect him.’
The incident made headlines in June 2022 after Gascon’s office – long known for going light on criminals in the name of progressive reform – sought a softball sentence while prosecuting the 16-year-old, who was intoxicated while driving the stolen vehicle
Gascon’s office told Fox News the youth camp sentence was ‘an appropriate resolution.’
‘The Sheriff’s Department agreed with the felony charges that were filed.
‘At arraignment, the minor admitted two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run.
‘The Probation Department recommended, and the court sentenced the minor to a youth camp for five to seven months, an appropriate resolution.’
They said that juvenile justice was intended to ‘rehabilitate young people’.
‘In this case, this teen will be held accountable for his actions and receive the needed services to foster positive development to keep him from committing future offenses,’ the office added.
The car Baca was driving was only stopped when the driver of a pickup truck rammed into him
Yet Rachel remained furious.
‘I have never been more surprised or disappointed, and, in fact, I have never felt so victimized as I have by the system and current policies of LA’s DA, George Gascon,’ Rachel wrote.
‘My heart breaks when I think about all of the other victims out there, less fortunate than me, whose murderers are getting lenient sentences and being released from prison before their sentences are complete.’
She added: ‘George Gascon doesn’t value my life or the life of my child, or any other victim out there and would rather reward the monsters like KB by demonstrating to them that their actions have no consequences.
‘DA Gascon is telling him and every other thug in LA County that it doesn’t matter if you try to murder people.
‘Why are Gascon’s policies prioritizing the livelihood of rotten monsters when my child, my baby, who is incapable of protecting himself, is left to fend for himself, and is essentially being told his life doesn’t matter?’
Gascon, 68, was elected in November 2020, but has proved deeply unpopular for his progressive policies that critics say are soft on crime.
In August 2022, a recall petition fell just shy of the 567,000 required to put bring the motion to a ballot, while still amassing about 520,000 names.
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