https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipVAsSDOXzw
RANDALLSTOWN, Md. – Baltimore County Police are releasing more information on the armed woman who barricaded herself and her five-year-old son Monday inside her Randallstown home.
After 23-year-old Korryn Gaines, of Sulky Court, repeatedly made threats to police who were attempting to serve a “failure to appear” warrant, the incident ended in officers fatally shooting her. The child was injured when he sustained a gunshot wound to an extremity, but is expected to survive, police said.
A man, identified as her boyfriend, 39-year-old Kareem Kiean Courtney, was also inside the apartment at the time of the barricade, police said. Courtney was wanted on a second-degree assault charge. He was taken into custody, and police said Tuesday that he was released on his own recognizance.
The barricade incident unfolded at Gaines’ Sulky Court home beginning at 9:40 a.m. County Police were serving the warrant which stemmed from traffic charges including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest from an incident on March 10, 2016.
When officers knocked on the door to serve the warrant, they heard voices, later identified as those of Gaines and Courtney, coming from inside, and also that of a crying child. When police opened the door to the home after obtaining keys to the apartment from the landlord, an officer saw a woman matching Gaines’ description pointing a long gun at him.
Police then left and called for backup. Shortly after, Courtney ran from inside the apartment with a one-year-old child and was then taken into custody, police said. However, Gaines and the five-year-old child, identified as Kodi Gaines, stayed inside and a standoff ensued for hours.
Police said they consulted with mental health professionals during the barricade.
According to an arrest report released by police on Tuesday, the one-year-old child was both Gaines’ and Courtney’s daughter, while Kodi was Courtney’s child from a previous relationship.
Around 3 p.m., police report that Gaines pointed her “long gun,” a Mossberg 12-gauge pistol grip shotgun which she legally purchased last year, directly at a tactical officer and allegedly threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave her property. The officer fired his departmental weapon, striking her multiple times. But then, she returned the gunfire, shooting twice, but missing. On Tuesday, police reiterated that one officer fired his weapon.
Gaines was declared deceased on the scene. Her son, Kodi, suffered minor injuries but remains hospitalized Tuesday. Police do not yet know whether police or Gaines struck the child. Police say, “Kodi Gaines was moving about the apartment, mostly in the kitchen area, during the barricade. His exact whereabouts at the time of the shooting remain under investigation.”
According to police, during the standoff, they “took cover behind the walls on either side of the door, but were visible to Gaines at various times throughout the encounter. Likewise, during the barricade Gaines remained mostly in areas of the apartment where she was visible to the officers.”
Because Gaines was posting on her social media accounts during Monday’s incident, police filed a request with Facebook to deactivate her Facebook and Instagram social media accounts “in order to preserve the integrity of negotiations with her and for the safety of Gaines, her child and officers…. Gaines was posting video of the operation, and followers were encouraging her not to comply with negotiators’ requests that she surrender peacefully. This was a serious concern; successful negotiations often depend on the negotiators’ ability to converse directly with the subject, without interference or distraction during extremely volatile conditions.” Police say it took about an hour after for Facebook to deactivate her accounts.
However, the content on her accounts has not been deleted and it is now considered evidence, which the police have requested Facebook preserve.
On Tuesday, police released more details on Gaines’ arrest back in March, raising questions about her behavior and stability. She was originally stopped on Pikeswood Dr. at Liberty Rd. around 4 p.m. March 10th when an officer noticed she had a rectangle-shaped cardboard cutout where a license plate should have been on her Toyota Camry. Writing on the cardboard read:
“Any Government officials 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.”
The front of her car had a piece of cardboard that read “Free Traveler.”
