A Maryland woman was killed by police after an hours-long standoff on Monday afternoon.
Korryn Gaines, a 23-year-old mother-of-two, reportedly pointed a loaded shotgun at a police officer who was attempting to serve a warrant on her and her boyfriend at her home.
Gaines reportedly said to the cop, “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, she reportedly used her 5-year-old son as a shield between her and the cop.
Gaines was shot and killed during the ensuing shootout with officers. Her son was injured in the shootout.
One officer got a key from the landlord and opened the apartment after no one responded to repeated knocks. The officer saw Gaines sitting on the floor, pointing the gun at him, police said. The officers retreated to the hallway, and a man ran from the apartment with a one-year-old boy, authorities said. That man was arrested.
Police said that negotiators tried to talk with Gaines and that she repeatedly refused to surrender. Authorities said that as of this morning they did not know whether any of the officers involved were wearing body cameras.
Gaines’s boyfriend (pictured above) reportedly fled the home during the hours-long standoff.
During the standoff, Gaines posted a video on Instagram.com as proof that she wasn’t holding her son as a shield.
“My son is not a hostage. He wants to be here in his home with his mother,” she wrote in the video caption.
But the video only proves how mentally unhinged she was. It’s sad to watch the mother manipulate her young son into saying the police are “trying to kill us”.
Social media activists say the police should have used tear gas or a stun gun on Gaines. But the reality is police aren’t required to deploy use-of-force alternatives if a shotgun is pointed or fired at them.
This case is similar to the Sandra Bland case in which a woman hung herself in a jail cell after she refused to follow a police officer’s orders.
