A wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of the estate of a Baltimore County woman claims that Korryn Gaines was “illegally” shot and killed by police during an August standoff at her apartment that also injured her 5-year-old son.
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This seems to run counter to the police account of events, in which officers say they shot Gaines-and her 5-year-old son who was sitting in her lap-because she threatened to kill Ruby and pointed a gun at him. “By blocking her live streaming, the Baltimore County Police Department not only suppressed he [r] speech under the Maryland Constitution but also stopped the only independent visual video record of what was taking place before Officer Ruby killed her”, the letter from her attorney states.
Police said officers were attempting to serve a warrant to Gaines when she refused to leave her apartment, brandished a shotgun and threatened the officers. However, police requested that Facebook deactivate her account, claiming that her followers were encouraging her to prolong the standoff.
According to the Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD), she barricaded herself in her home and used her child as a shield while pointing a gun at police officers while threatening to shoot.
Initially, officers went to the apartment to serve warrants on Gaines stemming from traffic violations.
Gaines also had her own issues.
Gordon wrote that their witness account differs from the police narrative The neighbor claimed the last thing she heard before shots were fired was a male police officer saying, “I’m sick of this [expletive]”.
According to the lawsuit, Coleman said that between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., he heard Gaines make an offer to police: “If you put your guns down and back up from my apartment, I will come out”. When police did not retreat, she told them to leave. Courtney had a warrant for his arrest related to an assault on Gaines; police later charged him with distributing heroin from the apartment. Authorities said there was an exchange of gunfire between an officer and Gaines, who fired two rounds from the shotgun, but did not strike police. J. Wyndal Gordon, an attorney for Gaines’ estate, had argued in a September 6 motion that the warrant is not legally justified since Gaines’ death necessarily concluded any pending police matters against her. Prosecutors have countered that the warrant serves both an investigation into Gaines’ deat and an investigation into the activities of Gaines’ fiance, Kareem Courtney. The legal documents also say the county’s crisis intervention team was not dispatched to help in the standoff. What is debated is why police was looking for Courtney in Gaines’ home when his “address and driver’s license shows that he lives in Baltimore City and has never lived with Korryn in Baltimore County, ” the notice reads.
Her neighbor, Ramone Coleman, told press on Monday that he had heard Gaines offer to surrender if the police lowered their guns, but they refused.
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Coleman said that police commandeered his apartment to conduct surveillance on Gaines, drilling holes in his walls to be able to see her. The responding officers opened fire when he pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them.
