After three weeks of testimony and a few hours of subsequent deliberation, an all-female jury overseeing the wrongful death civil trial of slain police shooting victim Korryn Gaines - ruled in favor of awarding her family $37 million, on Friday, February 16.
Gains was gunned down when after a six-hour standoff, officers locked out of her Randallstown apartment with an arrest warrant finally busted in to find her armed with a shotgun. The 2016 incident drew a passionate response from the public over several unsettling tactics used by Baltimore County police. For one, authorities had Gains' wi-fi cut off as she was live streaming the confrontation, and secondly, many took exception to the force used in disregard of the fact that her five-year-old son Kodi was present to witness the situation unravel.
Kodi will now receive $32 million of the total, as it was determined that County Cpl. Royce Ruby's use of force, when he fired off the first shot, was not objectively reasonable. The ruling contradicts the findings of a county prosecution that previously established that the shooting was legally justified. In addition to the lions share of the settlement that Kodi will inherit, Gains' daughter will get $4.5 million, and her father, mother, and general estate will get $300K respectively.
Source: baltimore.cbslocal.com
