Korryn Gaines, the Baltimore woman who was killed following an hours-long standoff with police, was involved in another altercation with cops in March.
Gaines, 23, was killed on Monday after she pointed a loaded shotgun at police and threatened to kill them.
Gaines was pulled over on March 10 after a police officer noticed she was driving a Toyota Camry with a piece of cardboard in place of a tag.
Cardboard tags on the front and rear of her car read:
“Any government official who compromises this pursuit to happiness and right to travel, will be held criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom.”
Gaines was apparently a member of the sovereign citizen movement, an anti-government group whose members believe America’s laws don’t apply to them.
When the officer asked Gaines to produce a driver’s license, she told the officer he didn’t have the authority to ask her for a driver’s license.
The officer’s report stated Gaines was acting belligerently and argumentative. A second officer arrived at the scene. When the 1st officer told Gaines she couldn’t operate a motor vehicle without a license or registration, she repeatedly told him he was breaking the law.
Both officers advised Gaines that she could be arrested if she didn’t provide proper identification. After running the car’s VIN number through the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, they learned Gaines was the owner of the vehicle.
But the car was not registered and she was driving without insurance.
The officer reported that when he handed Gaines a citation she threw it out the car window.
Witnesses told WBAL-TV news, “There was an extensive dialogue going on between her and the police.”
“There were probably five or six police cars out there, a heavy police presence,” the witness said.
Gaines was told the car was being impounded and she needed to exit the vehicle with her 2 children. But she responded she wasn’t getting out of the car and she wouldn’t let the officer “steal her car”.
Gaines was physically removed from the car and she was combative with the officers. One officer held her arms back so a female officer could safely take her infant away from her.
Gaines was held down on the street and handcuffed, a witness said.
“They dragged her out of the car, basically,” the witness said.
The commotion drew a crowd, and Gaines yelled she “could not breathe and to ‘record this’ while police were placing her under arrest,” the witness said.
The witness said, when police removed Gaines’s son from the car, “I do remember her telling the kid to bite the officer. (She said), ‘Bite him, bite him,'” the witness said.
The witness said the little boy was hysterical, screaming, “You could hear him.”
Gaines was transported to a hospital for a psychological evaluation and released.
Her children were released to their grandmother.
On Monday afternoon, police arrived at Gaines’s apartment in the Carriage Hill apartment complex.
They were there to serve a warrant on Gaines’ live-in boyfriend, Kareem Courtney, for a previous domestic assault on Gaines.
They also had a bench warrant for Gaines who failed to show up to traffic court.
When Gaines refused to answer the door, a landlord let police into the apartment. Gaines confronted the officers with a shotgun and said, “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you.”
The police retreated, and Gaines barricaded herself inside the apartment with her 5-year-old son.
At some point during the standoff, Courtney fled the apartment with the couple’s young daughter.
After an hours-long standoff, Gaines showed no signs of giving up.
When she fired several rounds at the police, the cops returned fire and she was shot and killed. Her son was wounded in the arm and taken to a local hospital.
In the aftermath of Gaines’ death, wild rumors and rampant speculation ruled the day on social media, where misguided Black Lives Matter activists called for protests.
Baltimore County police Chief Jim Johnson held a press conference on Tuesday to clear the air and dispute some of the rumors.
Asked if Gaines’s social media accounts were deleted, Johnson explained that during the standoff, Gaines’ followers encouraged her to continue updating.
He said police reached out to Facebook officials and asked them to disable Gaines’ accounts.
“Let’s talk about social media accounts. We did reach out to social media authorities to deactivate her account,” Johnson said.
He said the action was taken “to preserve the integrity of the investigation,” and that none of the videos were deleted.
“We can’t delete videos. Facebook maintains a law enforcement portal,” through which requests to deactivate were made, Johnson said. He added that it took “Facebook one hour to make a decision” to disable the account.
WBAL-TV reports that Gaines filed several lawsuits against landlords after she was exposed to a “sea of lead” in lead-contaminated apartments, that may have caused brain damage.
But in a deposition given for one of the lawsuits, her mother said Gaines was simply hardheaded and refused to listen to authority.
“She didn’t want to listen. She has poor decision making skills. I think she needs guidance,” her mother said.
