Seventeen-year-old Kristopher Julian Baca Jr. was fatally shot on January 18, 2023, in Palmdale, California. Deputies responding to a shots-fired call around 8:30 p.m. found Baca in a driveway in the 38600 block of 11th Street East with multiple gunshot wounds; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Reports say he had been walking home after visiting a fast-food restaurant when a red sedan pulled up, an argument took place between Baca and occupants of the vehicle, and someone opened fire before the car fled.

Baca had prior run-ins with the law. At 15 he drove a stolen vehicle under the influence of drugs in a hit-and-run in Venice on August 6, 2021, striking a mother pushing an 8-month-old in a stroller; both victims survived and bystanders detained him. He also had a prior felony conviction for spiking a teenage girl’s drink in 2019. Authorities have not identified suspects or established a connection between those past incidents and his death. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department asks anyone with information to contact their Homicide Bureau.

Did anyone in the area see the red sedan or the people who exited it that night?