FILE - This 2011 photo provided by Dr. Barry Weiss, from the website of Advanced Periodontics in Hamden, Conn., shows former employee Miriam Carey. The 34-year-old Carey was shot to death by police after a car chase that began when she tried to breach a barrier at the White House. Her funeral service is planned for Tuesday morning, Oct. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Advanced Periodontics, File) Photo: Uncredited, Associated Press
STAMFORD -- The lawyer for the family of Miriam Carey has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to look into Carey's fatal shooting in Washington, D.C., in early October.
According to a letter written by lawyer Eric Sanders, the case of Carey, 34, who had her 14-month-old daughter with her when she tried to breach a White House barrier on Oct. 3 and then led police on a chase before she was shot and killed, should be looked into by federal authorities.
He said basic common sense says things should have been done much differently with Carey, who was unarmed, by law enforcement officers.
Sanders, a former New York Police Departmentofficer, said just about every major police agency in the country, including the District of Columbia, prohibits discharging service weapons toward moving vehicles for a number of reasons, and moving cars are not defined as "deadly weapons" under department Use of Force guidelines.
"These law enforcement officials completely mishandled at best a simple `suspicious vehicle' car stop," Sanders said.
Such car stops are handled professionally by law enforcement all over the world every day without incident, including in other cities with so-called "high-value targets," he said.
Sanders said Carey's actions occurred after she allegedly refused to stop at the vehicle checkpoint, made a U-turn and began to flee, as authorities have described it.
Sanders said despite the fact she is alleged to have pushed a bicycle rack with her car and knocked down a uniformed Secret Service officer in the process, there were no laws violated as she was under no legal obligation to enter the checkpoint, and turning around and leaving did not violate any laws either. The question is, why did police pursue her, Sanders asks.
Carey had been having mental difficulties after giving birth to her daughter Erica in August 2012. According to police reports released by city officials last month, police were called to herWoodside Green condominium on four occasions when she was acting irrationally or sometimes violent.
A Stamford police officer was injured during a confrontation with her before the end of 2012.
In November 2012, she told police that some men were filming her in her condominium. Police checked the area, but could not find anyone spying on her or who fit the descriptions she gave.
Less than two weeks later when police were called because Carey was acting irrationally, she told police that she was the "Prophet of Stamford," and that President Barack Obama had put the entire state on a security lockdown after talking to her. She said the president had put her condo under electronic surveillance and that video of it was being fed live to all the national news outlets, the police report said.
Carey's family was at state Superior Court in Stamford as recently as last week trying to get custody of Carey's daughter, Erica. A judge has denied the custody motion in the case and is working with the Carey family and Erica's father in order to allow the child's visitation with the Careys at their New York home.
SOURCE; NEWS
0 comments:
Post a Comment