BY BECKY SCHLIKERMAN
Chicago Sun-Times
A South Side college student who was shot despite handing his cellphone over to two robbers died Saturday.
Kevin Baker, 19, was pronounced dead at 5:45 a.m. Saturday at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Baker, a student at Harold Washington College, was on his way back from class Thursday when the robbery and shooting happened, said neighbor and family friend Earnestine Barnette.
Baker was walking with his cousin in the 6200 block of South Campbell Avenue about 4:15 p.m. when two people — one armed with a handgun — got out of a dark-colored van and demanded their cellphones, police said. After the two handed over their phones, the armed robber opened fire, striking Baker in the head.
“Whatever they asked for, he gave it to them and they still shot him,” said Barnette, 51. “It’s terrible.”
“That was an innocent kid. He didn’t have anything to do with nothing out there,” she said.
Baker, an only child, was studying to be a veterinarian.
“He had a plan for his life,” Barnette said.
He was known in the neighborhood as “the college kid that don’t hang out,” she said.
“He was real nice. He didn’t hang out in the area. He went to school and then back home,” Barnette said.
As news of Baker’s death spread, many took to social media to express their condolences:
#Headlines: Chicago College Student Murdered After Robbed of Cell Phone
RIP Kevin Baker
Let's Pray for his family
— -VinceCharles- (@VinceCharles_84) January 22, 2014
Chicago violence: college freshman Kevin Baker killed after giving up his cellphone in a robbery. RIP & prayers to his family #Chicago #why
— Rosanna Buie (@caliro25) January 20, 2014