Baker: ‘Nothing justifies what I did’

Remorseful ‘sucker-punch’ defendant tells his side of the story

POCOPSON » At times forthright, apologetic, bewildered, concerned, and secretive, Barry Robert Baker Jr. said in an interview that he was wrong to punch a disabled man he had mocked, but insisted that he had not — as authorities allege — ran from apprehension for his crime.

“I’m mad at myself,” Baker said during an interview at the Chester County Prison, where he is being held on charges that stem from the assault that was captured on video outside a West Chester convenience store and its aftermath, in which police across the region hunted him down as a dangerous fugitive. “I am a better person than that.

“I feel bad for him,” he said of the 22-year-old man who he struck in the face as they traded words outside the 7-Eleven store on South High Street. “But I lost everything. My home, my business. Everyone I talk to says this has all been blown all the way out of proportion.

“I don’t understand why this case is so soughtafter,” he told a reporter he had invited to talk about his predicament. “People only see the one side of the story. They haven’t seen both sides of the story. This case has become more political than criminal.”

Indeed, Baker — a 29-year-old self-employed tree service contractor with a string of often petty offenses in his background who grew up in the Downingtown-Coatesville area — has been harshly condemned on social media and in the news since the incident with the disabled man.

West Chester Police Chief Scott Bohn, after watching the video, labelled Baker’s actions, “appalling.”