Korryn Shandawn Gaines, 23

Baltimore, Maryland
August 01, 2016

Agencies: Badin Police Department North Carolina

Cause of death: Shooting

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Overview

Baltimore County police say they shot and killed 23 year-old Korryn Gaines on Monday August 1, 2016 after an hours-long standoff at a home in Randallstown during which they say she threatened officers with a shotgun. Police had come to serve a warrant for a traffic violation that had occurred in March 2016. Gaines had recorded video of that interaction.

County police said they went to the home about 9:25 a.m. to serve Gaines an arrest warrant. Police said Gaines was with her 5-year-old son in her apartment during their negotiation. Afterwards, her son was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound he sustained during the altercation with police. Police said it was not clear who shot the child. The child is expected to survive.

Police said they were “unsure” whether the shooting was caught on officers’ body cameras. While at her home, Gaines had been live-streaming her faceoff with law enforcement but police were able to have Gaines' social media accounts disabled to cut off her communications with friends during their interaction. Her Facebook page also detailed what she described as past police harassment.

According to a press release issued by police, "On-scene command staff filed a request with Facebook during the barricade to deactivate Gaines’ Facebook and Instagram accounts in order to preserve the integrity of negotiations with her and for the safety of Gaines, her child and officers. Gaines was posting video of the operation, and followers were encouraging her not to comply with negotiators’ requests that she surrender peacefully."

Korrey Gaines was the 14th person killed by Baltimore County Police since 2013. The names of the officers involved in this case have not been released.

All week the Baltimore County Police have insisted Kodi Gaines was shot in a limb but they didn't know if mother or police fired the shot. Now they have changed their story to him being shot in the cheek by police.

Police said they didn't know if body camera footage was available, that seems to have now changed to nobody bothered to turn them on during the five hour stand off.

Legal Action

August 2016 Court documents associated with a search warrant show police kicked in her door

August 2016 Police admit Kodi Gaines shot in the cheek by police

September 2016 The Baltimore County police officer who fatally shot Korryn Gaines last month is a 16-year veteran of the department who was also involved in a deadly shooting in 2007, the Police Department said Thursday.

Police officials identified him as Officer First Class Ruby of the Support Operations Division. The department does not release the first names of officers involved in shootings under an agreement between the county and the police union.

September 2016 Instead of prosecuting her murderer, the Baltimore County Police want to sit around reading her FaceBook pages

September 2016 Family announces intention to sue

September 2016 Nobody will be charged with her murder.

January 2018 Lawsuit moves forward to trial

February 2018  Jury In Korryn Gaines Civil Trial Awards Her Family $37M In Damages  The jury found Friday that the first shot Baltimore County Cpl. Royce Ruby fired at Gaines was not objectively reasonable.

July 2020 Judge reinstates $38million in damages to family

Community and Family Efforts

#SayHerName

Sum of Us Petition to Facebook

Family members set up a gofundme page for donations to pay funeral expenses.

Trust Fund set up for the two children of Korryn Gaines

A vigil was scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. at Baltimore City College, according to a twitter post from Baltimore BLOC, a local community organization.

A number of supporters of police have surfaced on Twitter justifying the killing of Gaines.

One commentator contrasted the death of Gaines at the hands of police with other cases of white offenders who pointed guns at police, but were taken alive in a piece about "white privilege".

The ACLU of Maryland issued a statement that said, among other things that, "it should be an explicit goal for police in every encounter that all of the people, both the police and the community that they serve and protect, survive the encounter.  And from what we know today about the Baltimore County Police Department's response to Ms. Gaines, police failed to honor that goal, with devastating results."

Great read from the Huffington Post: When the expectation of behavior is higher of the DECEASED, “developmentally disabled,” domestically abused woman with a self-documented adversarial relationship with the cops, holding her son and registered gun than it is for the trained, professional police officers sent to her place of residence to serve a warrant for traffic violations, you know we’re completely and almost irreparably lost.

"That law enforcement sought to stop a video feed during this incident is particularly concerning when they themselves were not wearing body cameras," Rowland said. "As a result we only have law enforcement's narrative of what occurred at the end of this standoff."

August 2016 NYC protest here

Facebook censorship, account deactivation and deletion

August 2016 List of Police omissions and delays

August 2016 The Baltimore County Police Department told the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Friday it would continue to withhold the names of the officers involved it the Aug. 1 shooting of Korryn Gaines, the 23-year-old woman shot in her Randallstown apartment after an hours-long standoff.

August 2016 Civil Rights group write to Facebook about censorship at police request