Officers kill armed woman in apartment; boy wounded

Around 3 p.m., police said Gaines pointed her gun at an officer and said, “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you”.

A suburban-Baltimore woman who posted social media video of a 5-year-old boy talking during an hours-long standoff with police was shot dead by officers on Monday, according to news reports. The young mother, wanted for numerous traffic violations, allegedly threatened police with a shotgun, prompting the authorities to open fire.

Police said she had to be pulled from the vehicle.

Officers said she had to be pulled from the vehicle and repeatedly yelled to a crowd of people who had gathered to “record this” while police were arresting her.

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.

A young mother who allegedly pointed a shotgun at police during a stand-off in the U.S. has been shot dead.

“We should have taken more time with it”, Creo Brady, Gaines’ cousin, said. Police say he was shot in a limb during the stand-off and was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Baltimore County police officers have shot two other people this year, neither fatally.

Family members are in disbelief and say this event does not represent Gaines.

NBC News reports the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated. Gaines’ uncle told the newspaper that the boy was her son.

“The male suspect ran from the apartment with a one-year-old boy – one of two children in in the apartment with the couple – and was apprehended by police”.

“I’m in a surreal state of mind right now”, her uncle Jermaine Barnett told The Baltimore Sun. “We love her. We came up here to try to make this thing settle peacefully”.

His twin brother, Jermaine, described Gaines as “a attractive person, really smart, intellectual”. “My niece is a good person; I never knew her to be a rowdy person”.

Police said three officers executed an arrest warrant on Ms Gaines and a man at the same address on Monday morning. Gaines was charged after a traffic stop last March. The man was wanted for assault, authorities said.

Officers were unable to get into Gaines’ apartment without obtaining a key from the landlord. He left the apartment with a 1-year-old boy before the standoff and was arrested. That man was arrested. When they opened the door, officers found Gaines with a gun and her 5-year-old son in her arms. 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”. The Police Department began phasing in its body camera program last month, but only some officers have received the devices.