Documentary to be produced on Korryn Gaines

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A new documentary film about the police standoff that led to the death of Korryn Gaines is in development. Gaines was fatally shot inside her apartment by a Baltimore County police officer on Aug. 1, 2016 in Randallstown, Maryland.

Korryn Gaines documentary

The documentary will be directed by Jason Pollock, who also directed the documentary “Finding Kendrick Johnson” and “Stranger Fruit.”

Incident

Gaines was shot in front of her then-5-year-old son after a six-hour stand-off, which the 23-year-old live-streamed on Facebook to document the account. The police were serving an arrest warrant over a missed court date for a traffic violation. Gaines’ fiancé, who also was the subject of an arrest warrant at the apartment that day, left the residence with the couple’s then-1-year-old daughter during the standoff as the boy stayed behind with his mother.

The standoff ended with a SWAT Team storming her apartment and killing her in front of her son, who was injured the in the gunfire.

Family of Korryn Gaines Sues police and county

The family won a wrongful death lawsuit against Baltimore County and was awarded $3 million, with Gaines’ young son originally being awarded more than $32 million of a total $38 million award by a jury. However, the judgment was overturned by former police officer and Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Mickey J. Norman. The family has yet to receive any money from the settlement.

The Hollywood Reporter reports, Gaines’ family has given Pollock the exclusive rights to develop a documentary and a narrative film about her life and death.

“Our family is so grateful to Jason and his team for choosing my daughter’s case as his next movie project,” says Rhanda Dormeus, Gaines’ mother.

“I absolutely loved Jason’s investigative work on Stranger Fruit and Finding Kendrick Johnson. We are so honored that he’s committed to spend his time fighting for us now for Korryn.”

Pollock also released a statement about the project.

“Justice for Black women in our society always gets swept under the rug. Far too often the media will focus on the police killings of men. That’s why our team felt it is important to fight for Korryn right now. We are going to change the discussion with this project and focus on a case that the media just used as a hashtag in 2016 and then quickly forgot.”