Matthew Diebel

USATODAY

A suburban Baltimore woman who posted social media video of a 5-year-old boy during an hours-long standoff with police was shot dead by officers Monday, according to local law enforcement and news reports. The boy, believed to be her son, was injured, but is expected to survive.

The Baltimore County Police Department said in a statement that Korryn Gaines, 23, pointed a gun at officers serving arrest warrants at her Randallstown apartment. She was then shot and killed by the officers. Police said they could not immediately determine whether the boy was shot by Gaines or the officers.

Policing the USA

According to Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson, three officers went to Gaines’ apartment at about 9:20 a.m. to serve arrest warrants on her and a man. Gaines was wanted for failing to appear in court on traffic charges dating from a stop in March "and numerous other traffic offenses," according to Johnson.

A few minutes later, an officer got a key from the landlord and opened the apartment after no one responded to repeated knocks, the police statement said. The officer saw Gaines sitting on the floor, pointing a long gun at him, police said. The officers retreated to the hallway, and a man ran from the apartment with a 1-year-old boy, authorities said. That man was arrested.

For the next several hours, according to NBC News, officers attempted to negotiate with Gaines, who repeatedly pointed her gun at officers and made threatening remarks, police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said.

During this time, Gaines apparently took a video of her and the boy talking about the standoff. The video was posted on social media.

At about 3 p.m., police said, Gaines pointed the gun directly at an officer, saying, “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you.” That’s when an officer shot at the woman, police said, and Gaines fired two shots.

Gaines was hit several times and pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were hurt. The 5-year-old was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police have not released the relationship between Gaines and the child. However, Gaines' uncle Jermaine Barnett told the Baltimore Sun that the child was Gaines' son.

"We are of course extremely upset at an event like this," Armacost said at a news conference. "We do not like to be in a position of having to use lethal force, but this was a situation where our officers exercised patience for hours and hours."

She added: "We are very relieved the child was not seriously injured."

Authorities told the Sun they did not yet know whether any of the officers involved in the shooting were wearing body cameras. The department, according to the paper, began phasing in its body camera program last month, but only some officers have received the devices.

Another uncle, Jerome Barnett, 44, told the Sun that Gaines "was feisty, but she was smart and she was respectful."

"My niece is a good person; I never knew her to be a rowdy person," he said.