Lawyers for Korryn Gaines’ family confirmed that the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office will not file charges against the officers involved in the death of 23-year-old Korryn Gaines.
Rhanda Dormeus, mother of Korryn Gaines, stands with family attorney J. Wyndal Gordon, seen wearing a Colin Kaepernick jersey under his jacket, at a press conference Sept. 21. ( Photo by Briahnna Brown)
Wyndal Gordon, along with the Gaines family and their attorneys, met with State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger on Sept. 21 to discuss the case. He revealed that according to Shellenburger, Officer First Class Ruby shot Gaines from the hallway outside of her apartment, and did not fear for his own life, but for the life of his partner who “wasn’t even in the field of view of Korryn Gaines” when Ruby shot her.
Baltimore county police killed Gaines and wounded her 5-year-old son on Aug. 1 during a seven-hour standoff at her Randallstown, Md. apartment. Police maintain that Ruby shot Gaines after she threatened police with a shotgun. Gaines was live-broadcasting the standoff on social media before police, who were monitoring the broadcasts, had her pages shut down before her death.
“ believe that officer Ruby was acting in a cowboy style,” Gordon said. “What we have here is a rogue police officer not in fear of anything, but merely frustrated because Korryn did not surrender with sufficient alacrity.”
He then cited a statement from witness Ramon Coleman who claims that immediately before shots rang out he heard officers say, “I’m sick of this shit.”
Gordon also said that Shellenberger did not share any documents with the family, and only showed them a diagram, and felt that it was “discourteous to say the least.” He also said that Shellenberger gave no proof, only “he said, she said.”
Rhanda Dormeus, Gaines’ mother, simply said that she felt “empty.”
“I’m not surprised at all,” she said. “It’s happening all over.”
Kenneth Ravenell, the attorney for Cody Gaines, Korryn’s 5-year-old son, said that he was disappointed that charges are not being filed, especially given the information that the boy was shot blindly from a hallway.
“I am surprised because at a minimum it is reckless indifference for human life,” Ravenell said. “Cody has to live with this for the rest of his life.”
The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Baltimore County Police Department and Officer First Class Ruby—who fired the fatal shot—last week. Gordon said that the charges were filed before an investigation could be completed because they do not trust the department to conduct a proper investigation.
Gordon announced on Sept. 20 that he believed there would not be any criminal charges filed after the investigation.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to call this one,” Gordon said. “We heard from the police chief three days after the events occurred that they said they investigated themselves and found that they did nothing wrong.
“This was basically a rubber stamp by Shellenberger…of what the police chief had already told the people,” Gordon said.
Jimmy Bell, an attourney for the Gaines’ estate, said that all those responsible will be held accountable.
“All those who are elected officers who allowed this to go on…not only will we remember this November, we’re going to remember next November,” Bell said. “You don’t believe that black lives matter right now? We’re going to show you that black votes matter.”