Clark County held a public review on October 28 and 29 into a Las Vegas police shooting that killed Quinton Baker, a 28-year-old former college football player, and his three-year-old son, Kentre. The shooting happened on February 3. At the review, an investigator said the coroner’s office could not say who fired the shots that killed the child. The same review also revealed some intimate details about Baker moments before the fatal incident.
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As reported by the Daily Mail, Baker “came out as gay to girlfriend moments before using toddler as human shield during bloodbath that saw both killed.”
Detective Brian Walter of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Force Investigation Team gave that testimony.
“The coroner did not say specifically this shot came from this weapon or this shot came from this weapon,” he said, as reported by FOX5 Vegas.
Around 1:19 a.m. on February 3, police got a call about a fight and gunfire at an apartment complex in south Las Vegas, on the 8400 block of South Maryland Parkway near East Wigwam Avenue.
Officials say it began with Quinton Baker as he allegedly battered his girlfriend, Raneka Pate. He also threatened a friend and shot twice into a car tire in the parking lot, then took his three-year-old son, Kentre, into an apartment. Pate told the officers who arrived that Baker had said he would kill the boy and himself if police came up the stairs.
About 15 minutes later, Baker walked down the stairs carrying Kentre, with a handgun pointed toward the child, officials said. Officers shouted at him again and again to stop and put the gun down.
Body camera video reportedly shows Baker stopping on a sidewalk. He said he wanted to see Pate and that he planned to kill himself. Lt. Peacock, the supervisor at the scene, then yelled for an officer to “take the shot.”
Two officers fired almost at the same moment. Damon O’Donnell, 26, shot twice, and Jonathan Lowe, 39, shot three times. Detective Brian Walter testified that video shows Baker firing his own gun as he fell. Investigators found six casings from Baker’s gun, two from the car tire, and four from the confrontation.
Baker died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. Officers brought Kentre to an ambulance waiting near the entrance, and he was taken to University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Kentre’s death was ruled a homicide.
An autopsy on February 4 found a gunshot wound to his left buttock and another to his head. Police first said Baker’s shots killed the boy. Pate disagrees, and she has hired a lawyer to look into a wrongful-death lawsuit against the department.
“I called the police officers to my residence because of a domestic dispute. It escalated and turned into what seemed like a hostage situation,” she told ABC News 4.
The county review came after the Clark County District Attorney’s Office made a preliminary decision that charging the officers who fired was not appropriate. A county ordinance, Chapter 2.12, requires a public review whenever that happens.
According to the Daily Mail, Baker was a Kentucky native who played college football at Western Kentucky and Portland State. He was a three-star recruit, and 247Sports once ranked him the No. 21 all-purpose running back in the country. His high school bio listed an average of 165 rushing yards per game.
At Western Kentucky, he was the No. 2 running back in his first year, ran for more than 100 yards in his first career start, and made the Conference USA All-Freshman team. As a sophomore, he played seven games and rushed for 233 yards and a touchdown. He spent his junior season at Portland State.
Pate described her son in a GoFundMe tribute, writing, “Kentre was pure sunshine in human form.” She also wrote that he loved marine life and “could spend hours naming every sea creature by scientific or common name.”