Recalling How a Night of Joy Turned Tragic
Chloe Baker sits on the ledge of the car's window, as if riding in a parade.
This is a rare night, one to be heard and seen and felt close up. So she sits on the passenger side, half inside the car, half outside, watching people along Crenshaw Boulevard as they wave their flags and toot their horns and shout their love for the hometown team.
They are happy about the Lakers' championship victory, but Baker has other good things to be happy about. She has a family who adores her, including a 2-year-old son who is sleeping in the back seat. She is a smart college student and she is pretty. She has good friends, a red car and a closet full of shoes. She has just turned 18.
Shooting victim--A photo caption that accompanied a July 2 story about the fatal shooting of Chloe Baker mistakenly attributed a quote to her mother, Sheila Foley. The quote should have been attributed to Baker's aunt, Christina Foley.
The car inches along the crowded boulevard on this June night, one the city will long remember.
Minutes before midnight, as the car nears the intersection of Crenshaw and 48th Street, a gunman fires, killing Baker and wounding another person in the car.
So begins the saddest coda to the Lakers' victory song. On the night Los Angeles wrapped itself in joy, one family met unspeakable grief. While city officials condemned the destruction of property in the downtown area, and the Lakers offered to replace ruined police cars, Baker's family planned her funeral.
"Whoever did this to her, she did not deserve it," said her grandmother Alice Daniels.
At St. Brigid Catholic Church, several hundred people remembered Baker on Saturday as a mother, student and worker who was determined to achieve her goals--for herself and for her son, Rick. The funeral was attended by scores of young people who listened as speakers urged them to walk a positive path that includes education.
"In tribute to Chloe's life, you can continue to better yourselves, your family and your community," said Joyce Germaine, an educator who spoke at the service.
Baker's death is a reminder that there is no logic to the when and where of violence. Like shootings at churches and schoolyards, a death in the midst of celebration seems to carry a particular cruelty.
Baker's death is believed to be the only killing in Los Angeles related to the Lakers' victory celebration. In Huntington Park, Miguel Duran, 25, was killed while celebrating at Gage Avenue and Pacific Boulevard. No arrests have been made in either case.
Police investigating Baker's death say the killing was intentional. "This was not the proverbial bullet going in the air and coming back down," said LAPD Det. Brent Josephson.
