Pregnant Teen Held Boyfriend’s Hand After Being Shot in Suspected Road Rage (Exclusive)

Loved ones are speaking out after a pregnant Louisiana teen was shot in the head during an alleged road rage incident last month and delivered her baby via emergency cesarean section before she died.

Authorities say the incident occurred on Sunday, Aug. 24, around 9 a.m. local time, when 17-year-old Katelynn Strate, who was around 28 weeks pregnant, was traveling in a Ford Expedition with two others in the Ponchatoula area north of New Orleans.

That’s when Katelynn’s vehicle encountered the suspect in her death, identified as Barry West, 54, who was driving a silver Dodge truck in the same direction, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

An initial statement from the sheriff’s office suggested the two vehicles were tailgating and break-checking each other. But speaking on behalf of Katelynn’s family, friend Katie Cancienne Liebert denies this account.

Liebert maintains that Katelynn’s 19-year-old boyfriend and father of her baby, Alain Cruz, was not break-checking and did nothing to encourage the situation.

West fired one round into Katelynn’s vehicle, where she was riding in the front passenger seat, the sheriff’s office said.

“As a result of the investigation, it was determined while West believed the occupants of the vehicle in front of him had shot at him first, evidence has confirmed there were no other shots fired in the incident,” the sheriff’s office said, “and there was no weapon in the vehicle the victim was traveling in.”

When Cruz realized his girlfriend had been shot, he dialed 911 and drove her to the hospital, their friend says.

“The baby’s father is getting death threats and being told that he deserves to die because he put his pregnant girlfriend in danger, when in reality, that day, he was a hero,” Liebert tells PEOPLE.

Now, he’s struggling to cope with the fatal events that unfolded in a matter of moments.

“He’s a 19-year-old kid, and he watched his 17-year-old girlfriend, who he’s in love with, get shot in the head,” Liebert says. “He’s the last thing she saw before he died. She was staring at him the whole way to the hospital, struggling to breathe, holding his hand.”

The sheriff’s office said on Monday, Aug. 25, that Katelynn’s baby had been delivered via emergency C-section and was doing well in an area neonatal intensive care unit.

The post was updated on Tuesday, Aug. 26, to confirm Katelynn had died following the incident, with police noting the family had decided “to give the Gift of Life” and donate her organs.

“Her generosity will save lives, and we are immensely proud of her for that final act of kindness,” the family said in a statement released through Liebert.

They called her death a “preventable tragedy” that required justice.

Liebert says the family held a baby shower over the weekend and has chosen to donate extra baby items they’d received as gifts to the Restoration House Pregnancy Resource Center in Hammond, La., to help other mothers.

Liebert remembers the 17-year-old as kind and exceptionally entertaining.

“She had the best comebacks in the world,” she says. “When you were around her, it was just laughter.”

Katelynn also couldn’t wait to become a mother.

“She changed a lot once she became pregnant,” Liebert recalls. “Yes, she was still goofy and funny, but she was becoming a woman and looking forward to her baby and talking about what she wanted for her baby.”

Her family is choosing to keep her baby girl’s name private for now, Liebert says, but despite the traumatic circumstances surrounding the premature birth, “she’s shocking the nurses” with how healthy she is, adding that part of the baby’s name means miracle in Spanish — or milagro.

For now, Katelynn’s mother, Kristen Nicole Blow, is ready to care for her new grandchild and to co-parent with the baby’s father as he continues to heal emotionally.

“Katelynn’s old bedroom — they’re keeping her bed so that he [Cruz] can come over whenever and sleep in that bed and be with his baby,” Liebert says.

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West, the suspect, was initially booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail on multiple counts of attempted second-degree murder, one count of illegal use of a weapon and obstruction of justice, officials said.

After Katelynn’s death, his charges were upgraded to include one count of second-degree murder.

It was unclear if he has entered a plea or retained an attorney who can comment on his behalf.

“We want him charged to the fullest extent of the law,” Liebert says. “They don’t want him to have the death penalty. They want him to stay in prison without the possibility of parole.”

A GoFundMe to support Katelynn’s family has already raised more than $55,000.