Teen Who Was Gunned Down in Newark Made Anti-Violence Video Before Death: Report

A teen who was fatally shot in a Newark street last month made a video about stopping violence in New Jersey’s largest city in the months before his death, NJ.com reports.

Kyzeir Baker, 16, was shot along with an 18-year-old man on Spruce Street on Jan. 22 and died a few days later at University Hospital, the news site reports.

No arrests have been made in the shooting.

Baker’s death comes a little more than six months after he was interviewed in an anti-violence video posted on YouTube by the Newark HUBB mentoring program. Baker shot the video during a “Youth Television Film, And Press” class over the summer and talked about how teens should “avoid the streets.”

"It's sad. It's like every night somebody dies,” Baker said in the video. “It's sad to see how all of these young teenagers are dying so fast, every day."

In the video, Baker can be seen talking about gangs in Newark, and he recounts a story of a friend who was stabbed to death while trying to rob someone. He told the interviewer about advice his grandfather gave him to stay out of trouble.

"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.’”

The class’s teacher, Dash Living, told NJ.com that Baker was among 60 children in the class and was one of just a few willing to talk about violence and gangs on camera.

“He was always participating in the discussion,” Living said. “He had courage.”

Baker’s aunt told NJ.com that the 16-year-old was raised mostly by his grandmother after his father abandoned him and his mother got addicted to drugs. She said he was a Shabazz High School student and was on the honor roll in middle school.

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