Attorney Seeks $30M For Korryn Gaines' Son In Civil Trial
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Closing arguments began Thursday in the civil trial for the death of Korryn Gaines.
Gaines was killed during an hours long standoff at her Randallstown apartment after pointing a shotgun at officers trying to serve an arrest warrant stemming from a traffic stop that included disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The Facebook Live video that captivated the country back in 2016 showed as Gaines had barricaded herself inside her apartment for hours, cradling a shotgun and her 5-year-old son before Officer Royce Ruby killed the young mother.
At the end of his closing arguments, attorney Ken Ravenell asked the jury to consider awarding Korryn's son, Kodi Gaines, more than $30 million.
"That's 83 cents a minute for the rest of his life," he added.
Closing arguments came after both sides finalized jury instructions and verdict sheets on Wednesday.
Ravenell focused on inconsistent statements from officers on the front line the day Gaines lost her life.
"You watched a parade of law enforcement officers, swear in oath, then tell you untruth after untruth," he said. "You know what these officers said previously, was not what they said in the courtroom. You know! Why people don't trust police officers--that was on full display in this courtroom."
"There are a lot of inconsistencies with the officers. A lot of outright lying. A lot of trying to build an airplane in the air, which really cannot be done," said Gaines family attorney J. Wyndal Gordon. "We're tired of powerful men, with powerful guns, abusing authority because they can."
"The reason Ruby took the shot--it could not be because he felt as though there was a threat to the officers or himself because, quite frankly, because it just simply was not," Gordon added.
Gordon later accused Officer Ruby of firing the first shot and waiting 30 seconds before going into the apartment, only to fire three more shots at Gaines, who he says was laying in her own puddle of blood.
"How sick is that? What kind of man would do that to a woman?" Gordon shouted.
A verdict is possible for Friday afternoon.
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