-By Warner Todd Huston
The woman gunned down by Washington’s Capitol Police near the White House today has been identified. Her name was Miriam Carey and she reportedly has a history of mental problems.
Miriam Carey–who formerly lived in Brooklyn and lately in Stamford, CT–worked as a dental hygienist in the Connecticut prison system.
Apparently Carey, 34, had a history of mental illness. The woman’s mother said she was suffering from postpartum depression.
At about 2PM EST, Carey began an argument with Capitol Police on the streets near the White House. The argument escalated quickly and Carey took off and began to drive her car erratically with the police in hot pursuit.
The women gunned her car toward the Capitol building down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Police opened fire on the woman firing dozens of rounds eventually killing Carey.
Capitol Police draw down on Carey’s car
Police are fortunate that Carey’s 1-year-old daughter, who was in the car with Carey, was not harmed.
During the chase, a Secret Service cruiser slammed into a steel pylon and flipped over. This was the result of the Secret Service agents, not Carey.
It appears that what happened here is that Miriam Carey, who is already known for having mental problems, flipped out when the Capitol Police started screaming at her and drawing their guns on her. She probably just snapped with fear and confusion, and succumbed to her mental instability when she hit the gas on her car instead of obeying the police.
Finally, most of the damage, here, and all of the gun shots were perpetrated by police, not Carey.
Perhaps the police could have handled this a bit better? Maybe?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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