‘They will pay for killing my son’: Mom of 3-year-old killed in police shooting speaks out

Raneka Pate said she watched from inside a police cruiser as her 3-year-old son’s life ended amid a storm of bullets fired by officers at his father, who was holding the boy.

Police said the suspect, later identified as Quinton Baker, held the child hostage outside a southeast valley apartment complex, pointing a gun at the boy before officers opened fire early Tuesday morning. Baker shot the child, and the father was killed by police, authorities said.

Pate disputes the Metropolitan Police Department’s account. She said Baker did not have a gun when he encountered officers.

“I watched their last moments,” Pate, the mother of Kentre Baker, who was killed Tuesday, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “And my whole family was taken from me in an instant.”

Asked about Pate’s claims, a Metro spokesperson declined to comment but said the department would provide additional information, including body camera footage, during a briefing on the shooting this week.

Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department said that they responded to a call about a man battering a woman and trying to take a child from an apartment in the 8400 block of South Maryland Parkway.

Police were later told the man had fired a gun in the parking lot of the Parkside Villas Apartment Homes, Capt. Ryan Wiggins told reporters.

The woman said the man had returned to the apartment with the gun.

With officers on the scene, Baker stepped outside again, Wiggins said, holding the boy and pointing a gun at him.

But the 28-year-old mother said Quinton Baker was not armed while he carried Kentre outside as police arrived.

Wiggins said officers gave Baker commands to surrender, but he did not comply. When Baker continued to approach, the police shot at him, and the man simultaneously fired his weapon at the child, according to police.

Pate was kept in a nearby patrol car before the shooting and several hours after. She said that officers, not Baker, shot her child.

“There was a plethora of bullets,” Pate said, adding that she suspected that Kentre and Baker were shot many times.

Wiggins told reporters that the suspect died at the scene, and the boy was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Pate said she was prevented from being with her child and believes he also died in the parking lot.

Considering her son’s injuries, Pate believes paramedics would not have been able to get him to University Medical Center fast enough to save him.

The mother also said she was frustrated that Metro shared its version of events before she had a chance to speak out.

“They are trying to play damage control, but they will pay for killing my son,” Pate said.

In an online fundraiser created Wednesday morning, she described the boy as “sunshine in human form.” Pate said Kentre loved sea animals and knew their common and scientific names. The family is raising money to cover Kentre’s funeral and other expenses.

“His laughter filled every home he stepped foot in, and his hugs were the kind you never wanted to let go of,” Pate wrote. “He was rough but gentle, loving, smart, athletic and always quick to share if he had something on his mind.”