UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — A Maryland judge has sentenced 17-year-old Kaeden “Baby K” Holland to 25 years in prison for attempting to murder a middle school student on a school bus in Prince George’s County last year. The sentencing, handed down on Friday, follows a disturbing incident in May 2023 when Holland, then 15, stormed a school bus with two other teens and brutally attacked a fellow student.
According to prosecutors, Holland pointed a gun at the victim’s head and chest and pulled the trigger three times. Miraculously, the gun jammed, preventing what could have been a fatal shooting. The entire attack was captured on the school bus’s surveillance camera, which played a crucial role in the courtroom during Holland’s sentencing.
“It’s our right in this community to be safe, to work, and to live freely without the fear of being harmed,” said Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy in a statement following the sentencing. “The school bus driver, aide, and teenaged victim will forever be traumatized by what they experienced on that school bus.”
During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors played the one-minute video footage of the incident. Although the video lacked audio, police reports indicated that the bus driver was praying as Holland repeatedly tried to fire the gun.
Holland’s defense attorney, Michael Lawlor, argued that his client’s actions were influenced by several factors, including his upbringing in a single-parent household in a crime-ridden neighborhood and his own experience of being shot the previous year. “I feel as though it’s a cruel trick that gets played on so many young people, through no fault of your own … that’s what was handed to you, and so you might slip up,” Lawlor said, according to a report by the Washington Post. “When you slip up, you get to go to jail for 25 years.”
The severe sentence reflects the gravity of the crime, as well as the lasting impact it has had on the victim and others involved. The case has drawn significant attention to issues of youth violence and the challenges faced by young people growing up in environments plagued by crime.
