A man in Raleigh, North Carolina made a startling discovery on Saturday, August 15 when he found 17-year-old Veronica Baker unresponsive in her car. Responding to his concerned 911 call, police arrived to find the teen dead. Now, four teenagers have been charged in connection with her murder — with the youngest accused of carrying out the killing itself.
The Urgent 911 Call
Dispatchers received the call around 8 pm Saturday night. The audibly rattled caller told them he had found Baker unconscious in her car in a Bojangles fast-food parking lot. He said the doors were wide open and the engine still on.
“She’s not breathing, I tried to shake her and everything else, but there was no response, nothing,” the caller, who works at the restaurant, said.
Police arrived on the scene shortly afterword to find the 17-year-old dead on the scene. First responders reported that the teen had been shot.
Authorities immediately put out a call to the public for information regarding the crime. The following Tuesday, August 18, they detained four teens in connection with Baker’s murder.
Police arrested Keyshara Michelle Deans, 19, Nezyiha Zamir Collins, 19, and Tyreek Qumay Rogers, 18, on Tuesday as accessories to the murder. The following day, they arrested 17-year-old Devin Cordell Jones on murder charges. WFMY reports that, because Jones is a minor, police needed extra time to secure a custody order and juvenile petition prior to his arrest.
The girl’s father, Jim Baker, told WRAL that his daughter and Jones had been school mates, and that she hung out with “good and bad crowds.”
“She didn’t deserve to get shot and killed and left in a parking lot,” he said.
Remembering Veronica Baker
“She was my baby who had a future,” Baker’s mother, Laura, said. “She had such big, big plans for her future. My daughter would never hurt anybody. She didn’t have a fighting chance in this. She was a good girl.”
Friends came together on social media to pay tribute to Baker’s memory.
“I enjoyed every convo we had and she made me laugh,” friend Lamont Whitaker said in a Facebook post. Love you Veronica, I’ll miss you forever.”
“This was a baby,” another friend wrote. “A 17-year-old girl who was living her life exactly how she had planned. […] Veronica was one of the brightest, sweetest kids I’ve met. She had a heart of gold. She was a really genuine person. She made the boring camping trips fun. Someone decided to end the beautiful life she would’ve lived.”
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