A Baltimore County woman who held a shotgun, and at times her 5-year-old son, in her arms, was killed by police after a lengthy standoff that appeared in live online segments she was posting to social media.
Korryn Gaines, 23, was killed Monday and the child was injured after police arrived at her Randallstown home at about 9 a.m. to serve outstanding warrants for her and Kareem Kiean Courtney, 39, who lived in the residence.
Courtney was wanted for assault; Gaines was wanted for failing to appear in court on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and traffic charges.
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Police said they had successfully petitioned Facebook to temporarily deactivate Gaines’s account as they negotiated with her, after arguing that the filming and responses were making negotiations more dangerous. Police said some followers had been urging her to resist as they watched parts of the incident.
Gaines’s son was struck by a bullet or shrapnel in an exchange of gunfire at the end of the five-hour standoff and remained hospitalized in good condition Tuesday, according to authorities. It was not clear where the boy was, in relation to his mother, when she was shot, police said Tuesday.
Officers serving the warrants had knocked at the door of the home but received no reply, according to an account from Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson.
But officers could hear a man, a woman, and a crying child inside, the chief said.
Johnson said police obtained a key to the home from a landlord. When they opened the door, they saw Gaines sitting on the floor with the boy and aiming a shotgun at police, the chief said. Officers retreated to the hallway, he said, and began an “hours-long dialogue” with Gaines.
At about 3 p.m., according to the sequence Johnson described, Gaines pointed the gun at the officers and said she would kill them if they did not retreat or leave.
A police officer fired a shot; she fired back with multiple rounds and officers then fired three times, killing her, Gaines said.
Police could not say whether her son was hit by a bullet fired by authorities or his mother. “We know the child, as a 5-year-old would, was moving about,” Johnson said.
Baltimore County Police give news conference on the fatal shooting of Korryn Gaines
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Baltimore County Police held a news conference on August 1 about the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Korryn Gaines, a black woman killed by police in Randallstown. Officers were trying to serve warrants at the apartment when they said Gaines pointed a gun at them and threatened to kill them during an hours-long standoff. A five-year-old boy was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound. (Baltimore County Police)
Gaines owned the shotgun legally, according to police.
Courtney left the house with a younger boy shortly after officers arrived to serve the warrant, according to police, and later was arrested on the warrant for assault and released on his own recognizance.
But Gaines stayed and recorded live video of the encounter that she posted online. .
Johnson said Gaines had “anti-government views” but it is unclear if she was part of any specific movement.
Gaines also filmed the encounter with police in March that brought them to her door on Monday.
According to a police report from the event, which police released after the shooting, she was stopped when an officer saw that instead of a license plate she had a piece of cardboard on her vehicle. The cardboard declared, “Any Government official who compromises this pursuit to happiness and right to travel, will be criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom.”
Gaines, then refused to give police her license and registration, according to the report, saying they had no right to stop her. Police say she told them that if they wanted her to leave the car, they would have to “murder” her, according to the report.
Two children were in the car, according to the report. In one video, an officer is seen moving a child off Gaines’s lap while another grabs her arm.
She was ultimately removed from the car and arrested, suffering a minor cut on her finger in the process.
While waiting for a medic to arrive, Gaines shouted to her son to fight and bite the police, they said.
The victim’s aunt, Shannon Mcgee-Gaines, said in a interview Tuesday that an inaccurate portrait was emerging of her niece, but that she did not feel she was in a position to share details.
“She was intelligent, strong, determined, beautiful, she was a dedicated mother, an awesome friend. She was determined to enlighten people — there’s not enough accolades I can give her,” Gaines said. “There’s a lot that people don’t know.”
A body camera program began in July in Baltimore County, but police said there is no footage of this incident. The program is in the first stage of training with 50 cameras deployed among the 1,400 planned to be in place, the department said in a statement.
Sheldon Greenberg, an expert on police protocol at Johns Hopkins University said,decisions during hostage standoffs focus on the threat posed by the person with the gun, not the age of parties in a situation.
“The fact that it’s a small child or someone elderly, from the point of view of looking at it in the aftermath, is emotional,” Greenberg said. “A hostage negotiator may use discussion of the child in a negotiation. But at the point of a police action, them having to wrestle the person down or even shoot the person, that’s after all considerations have been made.”
He said that if a child is separate from the person with the gun, police may try to coax him or her to safety. But if the child is with the armed suspect, trying to address him or her directly could “exacerbate the situation.”
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...5-hurt-n621461
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...856_story.html
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Mythic+ Dungeon Adjustments - 27 April
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Is anyone successful on PVE moving strictly with click to move?
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