Barry West is an alleged killer from Louisiana who is charged with the murder of Katelynn Strate
According to police reports Katelynn Strate was a passenger in a vehicle that was being trailed by a car driven by Barry West. West quickly lost his patience with the vehicle in front of him and would open fire striking 27 week pregnant Katelynn Strate. Strate would die days later from her injuries however doctors were able to save her child
Barry West would be arrested and when Katelynn Strate died his charges were upgraded to murder
Barry West News
A pregnant Louisiana teenager was killed Sunday when she was struck by a bullet fired from another vehicle in what police are calling a road rage shooting.
According to the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, 17-year-old Katelynn Strate was a passenger in a car and seven months pregnant when she was shot in the head.
Pregnant teen killed in road rage shooting
What we know:
Police said a man driving a silver truck and the driver of the SUV the teenager was riding in were tailgating and “brake-checking” each other around 9 a.m. Sunday in Ponchatoula, about 50 miles north of New Orleans.
Authorities said the truck’s driver, Barry West, 54, shot one round into the SUV when it was in front of his vehicle. Police said he believed the occupants of the SUV had shot at him first, but evidence showed no shots were fired from the SUV and no weapon was found inside, the sheriff’s office said.
Strate was taken to a hospital and placed on life support, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Monday. Her baby was delivered by emergency cesarean section and was “doing well” in a neonatal intensive care unit, according to the statement.
What they’re saying:
“This is terrible. This poor infant is fighting for their life in the NICU while his or her mother is on life support. All because of road rage? There is no excuse,” Attorney General Liz Murrill posted on the social platform X on Tuesday.
The sheriff’s office later wrote in a post on Facebook that Strate had “officially become a donor hero.”
“This is a senseless tragedy on Sunday morning with no logical reason for this family to be experiencing this heartbreak right now,” said Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker.
What’s next:
West was charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of attempted second-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon and obstruction of justice.
https://www.livenowfox.com/news/pregnant-17-year-old-killed-louisiana-road-rage-shooting
