This past week, a 23-year-old, black mother from Baltimore was killed by the police, and her five year old son was injured in the crossfire (though thankfully he survived). The woman's name was Korryn Gaines.

She was killed by police when they went to her home to execute a warrant for her arrest.

For some, that is where this conversation ends. She is simply another young mother who, like countless African Americans and other people of color, has become a statistic. This further exemplifies the racial issues within the criminal justice system (which by extension includes the dynamics of race and police).

When I first read the headline and the hashtag, my heart broke.

"Not again,"kept ringing in my head. And then I watched the videos, and read the (at the time of posting) live updates and tweets.

Now - let me be clear, I have no way of knowing what would have happened if she’d answered the door and left willingly. And none of us will ever know what would have happened if she had. Maybe then, Gaines would have ended up like Sandra Bland, an African-American woman who mysteriously died while in police custody, or maybe Gaines would have been sent to court and had her child removed while she was charged with a felony evading arrest.

We cannot speculate on what has not happened; we can only analyze the events that occurred. This article is not about theorizing the potential outcome to something we will never know, but studying the facts of this particular case* and what it means in regards to Korryn Gaines and the civilian-police relationship as it stands today.

The fact is, the police were following the law when they went to her door with an arrest warrant. She had broken the law when she did not appear in court, and the police were responding appropriately.

But were they within their rights to shoot her? And is she another awful case of mistreatment of people of color by the police? And is the backlash against the police justified in this case?

The Events

Korryn Gaines was, technically, a fugitive. Gaines had a mandatory court hearing for a slew of misdemeanor charges after a traffic stop in March of 2016 which included littering, disturbing the peace, and resisting arrest. She was initially stopped for not having a license plate attached to her Toyota, and was later charged with the additional crimes after becoming “belligerent” (this was the word used in the Arresting Report, not me) with the arresting officer.

She did not pay her fine, and did not show up in Court during her allotted time.

This next part is important. When you fail to appear in court, the police are required to locate you. They are required to bring you before the court to find out why you were absent for your hearing or trial.

Gaines' live-in boyfriend, Kareem Kiean Courtney, 39, was also wanted for a separate charge. The police had a warrant for both Gaines and Courtney.

At 9:10am on Monday August 1st, two officers arrived at the home of Gaines and Courtney at the Carriage Hill Apartments with a warrant for the couple’s arrest. The police were not let into the home, but could hear coughing and a child crying. They continued to knock for 10 minutes before one of the officers left to get a key from the rental office. Despite unlocking the door, according to the Court documents, the officers could still not enter the apartment because of a secondary internal lock, which resulted in the officers kicking in the door.

Upon entering the apartment, the officers found Gaines holding a shotgun, demanding they leave.

According to Court documents, they left and called for backup.

Courtney was caught fleeing with his child, and arrested.

Despite being threatened, the officers did not open fire immediately.

During the period between leaving the apartment and 12:43pm, the police gathered outside the home while an emergency warrant was executed by the court commissioner charging her with first and second degree assault, obstructing and hindering, and resisting or interfering with arrest.

After securing the warrant, the police re-entered the home. In one video posted during the standoff we see an officer in a full body suit, with protective gear watching Gaines in an attempt to gauge the situation.

We can see in another video posted, Gaines asked her son who was outside the home (the police), and we hear Gaines ask her son if he is being held hostage. The sounds of the police are muffled but can be heard in the background.

At approximately 3:00pm Gaines reportedly stated, “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.”

An officer shot, Gaines responded, and three more shots were fired by the police fatally killing Gaines and her injuring her son.

But Was Gaines a Victim?

It is important at this point to stop and realize what Gaines did.

Gaines escalated an already tense situation. Gaines actively chose to not appear in Court (in reviewing her arrest report from the March incident, the arresting officer documents that Gaines threw her “must appear” citation out the window as a form of protest, thereby giving an early indication that she had no interest in cooperating with the police). Instead of opening the door when it was revealed that it was the police with a warrant for her arrest, she allegedly chose to hold a shotgun and demand that they leave the premises. There are no questions about whether Gaines owned a gun. She posted video and photographic evidence prior to the standoff of the firearm. And while we do not see the weapon in Gaines' post, it is not out of the realm of possibility that she was in fact armed.

Throughout the standoff the negotiations were useless, as Gaines’ one demand was for the police to leave.

Gaines endangered herself and her child to prove she would not submit to the police.

For everyone who is angry that her son was shot and blamed the police, blame Gaines. She used her son as a shield. She decided his life wasn’t worth appearing in court for, and his life was an easy way to protect herself from the police. She held her son hostage (and yes, legally, that is exactly what she did regardless of what a five year old says) to maintain power during the standoff. He was injured and (will be forever) traumatized because of Gaines’ actions.

The case of Korryn Gaines is really problematic for a multitude of reasons. To say that Korryn Gaines was a mere victim of the too common police brutality may very well be an insult to women of color like Sandra Bland who were killed by or while in the custody of police.

Sandra Bland was arrested, as seen through the dashcam, for no apparent reason. She was pulled over for unknown reasons, asked to leave her car for unknown reasons, her smoking (which is legal) was supposedly an act of defiance and resulted in a 72 hold during which Sandra Bland died. At no point was her right to habeas corpus fulfilled. She died three days later. Sandra Bland was a known African-American activist, who was pro-#BlackLivesMatter, who publicly spoke out against police brutality and institutionalized racism. Sandra Bland was a victim who was victimized for no other reason than the arresting officer believed, and has since proven, he could use his power to do as he wanted.

From the evidence released at this moment, Gaines was not another "simple" victim.

But It’s Still Complicated...

Many people have rightfully pointed out that less than eight months ago a group of militiamen lead by the Bundy brothers occupied a federal building with an arsenal of weapons, and were allowed by the federal government to remain there until they ran out of supplies at which point they were peacefully arrested. Why were a group of men acting out a terrorist plan (because demanding the federal government give you land and power or you’ll open fire is an example of domestic terrorism) allowed to remain peacefully for weeks on end? For that, I have no answer. I’m sure racism and sexism played a part of it, as well as public image and worry over upsetting the extreme conservatives who already detest the federal government during an election period.

Gaines’ is not an easy case to judge. The officer was well within his rights (and following the terms of his job) to protect himself, his fellow officers, and to attempt to save the hostage (Gaines’ son). She was a danger to herself, her son, and the officers. I cannot say that if I had been the responding officer, and it was a choice between me and someone else who was behaving erratically and dangerously that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. You see the inherent problem that many activist are having is that Gaines may have been in wrong, and the officer probably in the right.

But none of that matters now because the bunch is ruined.

I keep reading online that we should stop judging groups because of a “few bad apples.” You shouldn’t judge all police officers because of a “few bad apples," and you shouldn’t judge all Black Lives Matter supporters because of a “few bad apples.” Both sides of the spectrum use this argument to deflect from the actions of the extreme few within their respective associations.

But you see, the phrase isn’t, “Ignore a few bad apples because it’s bound to happen when there are so many apples.” The phrase is, “A few bad apples can spoil the bunch.” This phrase is about internal policing, controlling those who damage the image and quality of the group. And most importantly, removing all who threaten the sanctity of a group.

And that’s what we’re seeing; the result of spoiled fruit being left with the rest.

The police are not being trusted by the public even in cases where the response is clearly the the best course of action given the predicament because the Police Department's (across the country) actions are so varied depending on the crime and background of the offender. Every time a police officer is put on paid administrative leave (so basically a paid vacation) instead of being fired the bunch is spoiled more. Every time an officer is not indicted or prosecuted in the unjust death of an unarmed civilian, the bunch is spoiled. Every single time the blue shield pops up to protect the rotten, dirty cops it makes every other cop complicit in their dirtiness.

And every time a group of white, middle class militiamen or a young white man are allowed to commit an act of treason or terror against our country with a peaceful arrest while a black man selling cigarettes is held down and choked, then the bunch is spoiled.

The simple truth is, ignoring all other incidents of police brutality and focusing on just this case, Korryn Gaines was a danger to society who, as shown through her countless videos and online post, clearly was paranoid of authority and had an explosive temper. She was threatening the lives of our civil servants, holding her son hostage, and as such was killed. Assuming the incident report is accurate, and the forensic analysis supports the report, Gaines' name should not be uttered with the same reverence of Trayvon Martin.

The more complicated truth is this; how do we know when to back the police’s actions when too often the police look just as guilty as the criminals?

My mother used to say, “If everyday I kick you in the leg, and then one day I say, ‘Hey tomorrow, I’m not going to kick you.’ Who are you going to believe, me or that bruised leg of yours?”

Well officers, who should Americans, especially Americans of color, believe? You, or the countless dead bodies?

*All evidence presented in this article are based on the court documents as they have been released, and videos/images released by Facebook during and prior to the incident.