Korryn Gaines

Korryn Gaines, 23, a Black mother, was shot and killed by Baltimore County, Maryland Police Officer Royce Ruby on August 1, 2016, at the end of an hours-long standoff in her Randallstown apartment, where police had come to serve a bench warrant after she missed a court date over a traffic violation. Her five-year-old son, Kodi, was in the apartment and was wounded by gunfire from the same encounter. Police said Gaines aimed a shotgun at officers and threatened to kill them; her family said Ruby fired out of frustration rather than fear. Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger declined to charge Ruby, writing that the shooting was “justified.” A civil jury later found the officer's use of force unreasonable and awarded the family roughly $37–38 million, but the trial judge overturned the verdict on qualified immunity, and the legal fight over the verdict, a settlement, and Kodi's own claim ran until the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in January 2025. No one has ever been charged in Gaines's death.

Randallstown, MD · Baltimore County

• 2016: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The standoff and shooting, per Baltimore County police statements, the State's Attorney's public decision, civil trial coverage, and reporting by Time, CBS Baltimore, the Baltimore Banner, and WMAR.
• Police went to Gaines's Randallstown apartment on August 1, 2016, to serve a bench warrant issued after she failed to appear in court on a minor traffic matter; the ACLU of Maryland states that officers entered the apartment using a key obtained from the landlord, without her consent.
• Gaines was barricaded inside with her five-year-old son, Kodi, and the standoff lasted roughly six hours; police said she aimed a shotgun at the officer and threatened to kill him, and Officer Royce Ruby fired through a wall, killing her.
• Kodi Gaines was struck by gunfire and injured; accounts of the wound differ, with Time describing a non-life-threatening injury to his cheek and the ACLU of Maryland describing a wound to his arm. The ACLU also states that Gaines was shot in the back.
• On September 21, 2016, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger announced no charges, writing to the police department that “this shooting was justified” because Ruby feared for his safety; the family, which had filed a civil suit the week before, said Ruby shot out of frustration, not fear.
• After a 14-day trial in February 2018, a jury found the officer's deadly force unreasonable and awarded the family roughly $37–38 million; reporting differs on the exact total and on how it was divided between Gaines's estate and Kodi.
• In February 2019, Circuit Judge Mickey Norman overturned the verdict on qualified immunity grounds and ordered the county to pay Kodi $400,000 plus interest; in mid-2020, an appeals court rebuked the ruling and reinstated the jury's verdict.
• In 2021, the family settled Korryn Gaines's own claims with Baltimore County, reported at $3 million; Kodi's claims were not part of that settlement.
• In June 2024, a divided Supreme Court of Maryland held that qualified immunity protected Ruby from Kodi's claim, reasoning that Ruby did not intend to shoot the child and that the shooting did not “shock the conscience”; the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of that ruling on January 27, 2025.

• Whether Gaines pointed a shotgun at officers at the moment Ruby fired, as police stated, or whether the shooting reflected frustration rather than a threat, as the family alleged and the 2018 civil jury's finding of unreasonable force suggests, was never tested in any criminal proceeding, since no charges were filed.
• Why a civil jury and a state's attorney, reviewing the same shooting, reached opposite conclusions about whether the force was reasonable has not been reconciled in any single public finding.
• The exact verdict total and its division between Gaines's estate and her son differ across the sources reviewed, and the settlement amounts beyond the reported $3 million for Gaines's own claims have not been confirmed.

• Time — “No Charges Filed in Fatal Shooting of Korryn Gaines”
• ACLU of Maryland — “Demanding Accountability from the Police and Courts”
• WMAR 2 News — “Family of Korryn Gaines settles with Baltimore County, 5 years after deadly police shooting”
• The Baltimore Banner — “Lawyers in Korryn Gaines case appeal to US Supreme Court”
• Supreme Court of the United States — Docket 24-578, Cunningham v. Baltimore County
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs