Teen Rapper Gets 25 Years for Attempted Murder on School Bus

Three times, Kaeden Holland pulled the trigger. Three times, the gun jammed. That mechanical failure is the only reason a 14-year-old boy from Prince George's County is still alive, and it is why Holland, known locally as teen rapper "Baby K," received a 25-year prison sentence at the Upper Marlboro courthouse on August 16, 2024.

Holland was 15 years old when he and two accomplices, all three wearing masks, stormed onto a Prince George's County Public Schools bus stopped at Iverson Street and Sutler Drive in Oxon Hill on May 1, 2023. He pressed a loaded handgun to the boy's head and chest and pulled the trigger three times. Each time, it failed to fire. Holland then struck the victim in the head with the weapon and fled with the others. The entire attack was captured on the bus's surveillance camera.

Bus driver Natalie Brower did not leave her seat. She stayed and helped get the victim and the bus aide to safety before later leaving the job permanently. The aide was also described as permanently traumatized by the incident.

In court, the victim's mother, Alisha Gray, told the judge her son has been suffering panic attacks ever since and still refuses to ride public transportation more than a year later.

Holland pleaded guilty in March 2024 and was sentenced under a plea agreement to 60 years with all but 25 suspended for first-degree attempted murder, plus a concurrent 20 years on a weapons charge. He received credit for 443 days already served and will be held at the Patuxent Institution under a youth offender program. A judge ruled in early 2024 that Holland would be prosecuted as an adult in Prince George's County Circuit Court. He had been tracked down and arrested by a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force.

State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy disclosed at sentencing that Holland had already cycled through the juvenile system on a prior gun charge without completing the program's requirements. She called the 25-year term appropriate given "the planning, the deliberation, the execution" of an attack aimed at killing a child, and she called the case a warning to the wider county: "There are so many kids, there are so many Mr. Hollands out there. Parents, you have the power to make the difference."

The 25-year term for a crime committed at 15 represents the outer limit of what the plea agreement allowed, and signals that Prince George's County courts will apply adult accountability to premeditated gun violence on school grounds when a juvenile record already exists.

The attack immediately triggered demands for safety reforms. The union representing PGCPS transportation workers submitted 50 recommendations to district leadership. Most were adopted, but among the requests left unmet was the call for aides on every bus and enhanced security at driver facilities.

Since the attack, Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services launched its Thrive Academy intervention program in Prince George's County in December 2023, offering life coaching, therapy, and relocation services to teens identified as being at elevated risk of gun violence. Parents and students can report safety concerns anonymously through the Safe Schools Maryland tip line at 1-833-632-7233 or at safeschoolsmd.org. The line is available to all county residents and routes tips directly to school officials.

Holland's local notoriety as "Baby K" helped the surveillance footage spread across social media, turning a school bus in Oxon Hill into a county-wide reckoning with youth gun violence that a near-miss and a malfunctioning gun forced into the open.