As the 911 caller reported the unconscious female found alone inside a car with its engine running and doors wide open outside a Bojangles fast-food chicken restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday, he expressed his panic.
“She’s not breathing,” he told the dispatcher, reports WRAL. “I tried to shake her and everything else, and no response.”
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A second person can be heard in the background, saying the car had been sitting in the lot for a while.
“Man, this is not good,” the second man says.
Officers dispatched at 8:18 p.m. reported the female, 17-year-old Veronica Lee Baker, of Raleigh, dead at the scene, where first responders said she had been shot, reports WTVD.
Police have issued a call for the public’s help to determine what happened.
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“This was a baby,” a friend wrote on Facebook. “A 17 year old girl who was living her life exactly how she had planned. She was taking online classes (couldn’t be on campus due to COVID.) at Wake Tech. She was a daughter. One of two of her parents’ pride and joys. She was also a sister. Not only a sister, she was like a cousin to us. As our parents got closer so did we.”
The writer continued: “Veronica was one of the brightest, sweetest kids I’ve met. She had a heart of solid gold. She was really a genuine person. She made the boring camping trips fun. Someone decided to end the beautiful life she would’ve lived. Then left her in her car in the parking lot of a fast food establishment. … Help get this out there in hopes that her parents, two very loving, heartbroken, grieving PARENTS get the closure that they deserve. And if you share it please use #JusticeforVeronica.”
Another friend, Lamont Whitaker, wrote on Facebook: “I enjoyed every convo we had and she made me laugh. Love you Veronica I’ll miss you forever.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Raleigh CrimeStoppers at (919) 834-4357.