{"id":47216,"date":"2026-08-15T19:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47216"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:36:51","slug":"bakersfield-dad-recalls-fatal-shooting-of-son-by-12-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47216","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield dad recalls fatal shooting of son by 12-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fnewspress-collage-00qltu0wo-1786760581208.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261786746286\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A grieving California father is recounting the heartbreaking final moments he spent holding his dying son after he was gunned down in a shooting allegedly involving a pack of minors.<\/p>\n<p>Vernon \u201cWes\u201d Lancaster and his son, Eric Lancaster, 53, were both shot on the 800 block of Crane Street in Bakersfield in mid-July.<\/p>\n<p>But while Wes survived, his son did not.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Eric Lancaster and Veron \u201cWes\u201d Lancaster, the victim\u2019s father, in east Bakersfield. Young teens face murder charges after a shooting in the area. <span class=\"credit\">KGET News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Victim Eric Lancaster, who was killed in a shooting in east Bakersfield. <span class=\"credit\">KGET News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cSeeing my son go down and seeing his fixed eyes. That is something I will never forget. His eyes were just fixed,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=89rVTspKDIw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wes told KGET News.<\/a> <\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Wes said he desperately reached for his son after he was shot, trying to keep him alive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen my son fell, I reached over as hard as I could to hold his hand and tell him to stay with us. Stay with us. And it was too late. It was too late already,\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.turnto23.com\/news\/in-your-neighborhood\/bakersfield\/three-juveniles-ages-12-13-and-16-charged-with-murder-in-east-bakersfield-shooting-that-killed-53-year-old-man\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> he also told ABC23. <\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Young teens face murder charges after a shooting in east Bakersfield. <span class=\"credit\">KGET News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Three teens are facing murder charges <span class=\"credit\">KGET News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Three juveniles \u2013 ages 12, 13 and 16 \u2013 were arrested in connection with the shooting and charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, and participation in a criminal street gang, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kernsheriff\/posts\/juveniles-arrested-for-crane-st-homicideon-july-18-2026-around-725-pm-kern-count\/1490546346448247\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the Kern County Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The three suspects are accused of opening fire on the father and son, leaving Eric dead and Wes wounded.<\/p>\n<p>The Lancasters were minding their own business when the group of teens tried to steal the backpack from the son. Eric then attempted to flee with his bike and was shot.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The 800 block of Crane Street in Bakersfield. <span class=\"credit\">Google<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Kern County Sheriff <span class=\"credit\">Kern County Sheriff&#8217;s Office\u00bf<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHe got caught up in it randomly. It wasn\u2019t his fault. He didn\u2019t do anything. He didn\u2019t know those kids,\u201d Wes also said. <\/p>\n<p>The 16-year-old was the first to be detained and was also arrested in connection to an unrelated investigation. <\/p>\n<p>The 12-year-old also faces additional charges of two counts of assaults with a semiautomatic firearm and possession of a handgun by a minor while the 13-year-old was charged with assault and participating in a criminal street gang. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A grieving California father is recounting the heartbreaking final moments he spent holding his dying son after he was gunned down in a shooting allegedly involving a pack of minors. Vernon \u201cWes\u201d Lancaster and his son, Eric Lancaster, 53, were both shot on the 800 block of Crane Street in Bakersfield in mid-July. But while&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/newspress-collage-00qltu0wo-1786760581208.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1786746286&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}