A baby girl was born by emergency C-section in Louisiana after her teen mother was critically shot during a suspected road rage incident — and is unlikely to ever meet her newborn daughter.
The girl was born Sunday at a hospital in Hammond, just north of New Orleans, about half an hour after 17-year-old Katelynn Strate was shot in the head by the driver of a silver pickup truck.
Strate was placed on life support after the attack so her baby could be saved, and the girl was delivered two months early at 3 pounds, 11 ounces, but is in perfect health, Nola.com reported.
But doctors determined Strate is unlikely to recover, and her family is expected to take her off life support Tuesday.
“[Her] mother is devastated,” family friend Katie Cancienne told the Nola.com. “She just lost her baby, and now she’s a grandmother.”
The shooting happened Sunday morning as Strate and her boyfriend were headed to his mom’s house when they encountered a silver Dodge pickup driving in the same direction on North Hoover Road.
“Something happened,” Cancienne said, while police explained that the two cars began tailgating and brake-checking one another.
The driver of the pickup — 54-year-old Barry West — then allegedly fired a gun and struck Strate, who was in the passenger seat, with the bullet becoming lodged in her skull.
Strate was rushed to the hospital, and the emergency C-section was performed.
West was later arrested and told police he thought the other car had shot at him first — but police found no evidence to support that. A gun wasn’t even found in Strate’s car, NOLA.com reported.
He has been charged with attempted second-degree murder.
“These kids were just driving on their way to the interstate and drove past the wrong guy,” Cancienne told the outlet.
Friends recalled Strate as a delightful person who was ecstatic to become a mother — and was deeply devoted to her family.
“They just had a dynamic where you could tell there was genuine love there,” Cancienne said.
“The world’s not going to be the same kind of place without her.”
