Teen in Newark Spreads Anti-Violence Message Before Fatally Shot

Kyzeir Baker is a 16 year old teenager who had been fatally shot in the streets of Newark last month. He had previously made an educational video about the impact of violence on his life and how to stop the violence in New Jersey’s largest city through education just months before his own death. Baker was shot along with an 18-year-old male on Spruce Street on Jan. 22. He died a just few days later at University Hospital. So far, no arrests have been made in the shooting.

Kyzeir Baker, 16 suffered from fatal gunshot wounds during a shooting that occurred on Jan. 22

Baker’s death accord a little more than six months after he was interviewed on an anti-violence video that was posted on YouTube by the Newark HUBB with is a mentoring program. Baker shot the video during a “Youth Television Film, And Press” class he took over the summer. According to his teacher, he was one of 60 students in the class in whom only a selected few were elected to participate in the video.

 
Baker talks about the gangs in Newark; he recounts a story of his friend who died from being stabbed by the person he was trying to rob. He also talks about the importance of his grandfather advice was to him. “He told me, ‘Don’t get in the gangs, don’t get into nothing,’” Baker recalled in the video. “He said, ‘Be you, go out there be a lawyer, doctor, basketball player, whatever you want to be, but avoid the streets.’

Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4-EC or 1-877-847-7432.