Facebook suspended woman's account during fatal standoff with police
Facebook shut down the accounts of a woman engaged in a fatal stand-off with officers at the request of the Baltimore County Police Department Monday.
The social network suspended Korryn Gaines' accounts during a five hour standoff in Randallstown that ended in her death.
The 23-year-old, who barricaded herself in her apartment with her five-year-old son and was wielding a shotgun at officers, was posting videos of the scene online. She was eventually shot and killed at the end of the siege.
You May Also Like
Three officers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Gaines on charges stemming from a March 10 traffic stop including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the Associated Press reports.
They went to her house to serve warrants on both her and her boyfriend, 39-year-old Kareem K. Courtney, who left the apartment with a 1-year-old boy before the standoff and was arrested. Gaines, however, ignored Courtney's pleas to surrender, according to her mother Rhonda Dormeus.
Dormeus went to the scene but wasn't allowed to speak to her daughter, which she thought might have helped. "I do feel like they didn't want to hurt her," she said. "But I don't feel like they exhausted all the means of negotiation."
Authorities said Gaines was armed during the standoff with a 12-gauge pistol grip shotgun that was legally purchased last year and toward the end of the negotiations pointed it directly at an officer. She said, "If you don't leave, I'm going to kill you," the Associated Press reports.
An officer shot at her and Gaines fired two shots, but missed the officers, who returned fire and killed her, police said. The boy was wounded in the arm but is in good condition at a hospital. Police are unsure if he was hit by gunfire or shrapnel.
The department hasn't yet released the names or races of the officers involved, who were placed on administrative leave. None were wearing body cameras.
Social media streams
Gaines posted several videos to her Instagram page during the standoff.
One, of her son, remains on the site. The other, which appears to show a member of the police SWAT team inside the home, has since been deleted.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Her Facebook page, meanwhile, has since been turned into a memorial page.
The second clip, which was removed from Instagram, has been scraped and posted on Twitter.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Gaines also posted videos from the March traffic stop on her Instagram account four months ago.
Police said she was pulled over because instead of a license plate, she had a cardboard tag that said: "Any government official who compromises this pursuit of happiness and right to travel will be held criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom."
Gaines said during the traffic stop that officers would have to "murder" her to get her out of her car, according to court documents. She said a similar thing in another Instagram video.
Police Chief Jim Johnson said Tuesday that the department made the emergency request to have Gaines' social media accounts suspended once they realized the videos were online. People who saw the postings were encouraging her to not comply with the police, he said.
Facebook told Mashable it doesn't discuss specific cases, but highlighted its "information for law enforcement authorities" page which says that "in responding to a matter involving imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person and requiring disclosure of information without delay, a law enforcement official may submit a request through the Law Enforcement Online Request System at facebook.com/records."
Johnson said that county police based their request on the fact that there was a barricade involving someone with a gun, and that a child was present.
According to a Facebook report detailing government requests, the company received roughly 855 requests for emergency disclosures of information to government agencies due to the threat of harm or violence between July and December 2015. About 73 percent of those requests were granted.
Court documents show Gaines filed a lawsuit against a former landlord, alleging she was "exposed to a sea of lead" as a child, which contributed to "neuro developmental disabilities or injuries." A medical expert who evaluated Gaines wrote that she "had a history of problems with anger and impulsive behavior" and visited her school counselor on several occasions.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press.
Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.
