Newly released videos reveal the final hours of an hourslong standoff involving Baltimore County Police officers and a shotgun-wielding mother who was shot and killed by law enforcers, last August.
Police said 23-year-old Korryn Gaines recorded the video clips inside her Towson, Md. apartment when Baltimore County Police came to serve warrants for her and her boyfriend, Kareem Courtney.
Instead of surrendering to authorities, investigators said, Gaines began live-streaming videos on her Facebook account. In the clips, she is seen screaming one moment and calm on others. “I got the devil at my door, and he’s refusing to leave,” she said. “I’m at peace. I’m in my home. I ain’t trying to hurt nobody.”
Courtney and Gaines’ daughter left the apartment shortly after officers showed up, but the mother and her 5-year-old son stayed inside for about five hours. “They have taken half of my family out of my home, and it’s me and my son in here, and I’m not sure what is going on past that,” she said in one of the clips.
At one point, a negotiator tried to persuade Gaines to give up, to no avail. “You’re a young lady. You got your whole life ahead of you,” the negotiator is heard telling Gaines in one of the clips. “You have a beautiful baby whom I would like to meet, and you and I are going to talk until we come to an agreement, and we bring everybody out safe.”
Police said the standoff ended shortly after Gaines told officers, “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you.”
An officer shot at Gaines, and she fired two shots that missed the officers. They then returned fire, fatally striking her and injuring her son in the arm.
Lawyers for the woman’s estate have lodged allegations claiming police refused to de-escalate the situation. The civil suit also claims she told police she would leave the apartment if they put down their weapons, and that officers grew frustrated waiting and fired first with no regard for her or her son’s life.
The officer who fired the fatal shot has been cleared of criminal liability. In the police report, the officer claimed Gaines put her son between them and said she absolutely was not coming out of the apartment or giving up.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.