It isn’t the taxpayers issuing the threats. Update to this previous story.
Via Baltimore Sun:
Citing “an unprecedented number of threats” against its officers, the Baltimore County Police Department said Thursday that it would not release the name of the officer who shot Korryn Gaines to death.
Chief James Johnson made the decision after the department received “threats and actions against specific officers and officials,” officials said.
They also cited Gaines’ “anti-government sentiment” and the killings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.
“We constantly balance the need for transparency with the need to protect investigations and safety,” Johnson said in a statement. “This is a situation where I feel we must err on the side of safety.”
Police went to Gaines’ Randallstown home Monday morning to serve a warrant. They say Gaines refused to allow officers in. Nearly seven hours into the standoff, police say, officers and Gaines exchanged fire. Gaines, 23, was shot to death. Her 5-year-old son was wounded.
olice said Thursday that they were still investigating the shooting, including whether Gaines or a police officer shot her son.
The Baltimore County councilman who represents Randallstown said the police response should be reviewed.
Councilman Julian Jones, a Woodstock Democrat, said police were following training, but the incident should raise broader questions about how they respond in such confrontations.
“Maybe it would have been better to back away from the situation and say, ‘Listen: You have to come out sooner or later,'” Jones said. “But I don’t think police are built that way. And that’s why we have to examine what is the best way to go.”
Several of Gaines’ relatives have asked whether police could have done more to prevent her death.
“I do feel like [police] didn’t want to hurt her,” Rhonda Dormeus, her mother, said this week. “But I don’t feel like they exhausted all the means of negotiation.”
Police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said every serious use of force is reviewed as an opportunity to examine both the incident itself and general practices “to make sure we are handling these things in the best possible way.”