US Capitol Shooting Update

[Content Note: Guns; violence.]

So what we know about yesterday's incident in DC is that the driver of the car, who was shot and killed by police after a brief but intense car chase following an attempted breach of barricades at the White House, was a 34-year-old black woman named Miriam Carey, who was reportedly suffering from postpartum depression. She had her 1-year-old daughter in the car with her, and she was unarmed.

What is still very unclear at this point is exactly where Carey was when police shot and killed her. Reports say things like "the chase ended when police fatally shot her," but other reports hint at Carey having already stopped and exited the vehicle (or started to) when she was shot. I cannot find confirmation on where, exactly, she was when she was killed.

In either case, I have yet to read anything that remotely approaches justification for killing her. I suspect that's because there was none. Of course, my definition of "justified" seems to be wildly different than the cops'.

Amadi has been saying smart things on Twitter this morning about the shift in police tactics that seems to have made "shoot first and ask questions later" a standard policy, especially with black suspects. (If you're on Twitter and not already following Amadi, you should definitely be following Amadi.) Also, Kim Brown offered a perfect example of the dramatic difference in approach that police used to take:

In 1994, a man fired a SEMI-AUTOMATIC rifle at the WH. Was he shot? No. Secret Service wrestled him to the ground. http://t.co/qONyY1Pt7P

— KB3 (@KimBrownTalks) October 4, 2013

I just don't see why Miriam Carey had to die.

On Twitter, Yolanda Pierce quite rightly and compassionately observed: "Even video is subjective. One person sees a deliberate attempt to elude capture. Another sees a person who's scared, confused, & in a panic."

To which Amadi added: "even a deliberate attempt to evade capture does not justify police execution."

Yeah. That.