Shots Fired Outside U.S. Capitol

[stromboli]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/0 ... 38560.html

The United States Capitol is in lockdown, the Associated Press reports.

Shots were reportedly fired outside the Capitol Thursday afternoon. A shooter is reportedly in custody.

Televisions inside the Capitol showed the following warning:

Police say the U.S. Capitol has been put on a security lockdown amid reports of possible shots fired outside the building.

People standing outside the Supreme Court across the street from Congress were hurried into the court building by authorities.

U.S. Capitol police said they had received reports of gunshots and one police officer has been injured.

Yeah, like we needed this shit. At least I can hope there is a dead or wounded Tea Party member somewhere.

[Brian37]

Yea, single woman driver,  tried to ram white house barrier, SS gave chase, DC police joined in, then she got past the capital crashed got out, "allegedly" fired on police, she was then shot. Had a kid in the car.

[josephpalazzo]

just another normal day in murica...

[Shiranu]

Some sources are saying she wasn't killed,  others that she was unarmed (officer injured by car).

The video I saw the cops showed alot of restraint so I am happy to see that at least.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

She's dead.. Police won't release much, if any info about her now. Hit two cops with car after some sort of argument with guards guarding white house outer security perimeter.

[LikelyToBreak]

AllPurposeAtheist wrote in part:

She's dead.. Police won't release much, if any info about her now.

I think I've heard this before.  It went something like this, "Now that our investigation is done, (and everybody knows the story we made up) we found that the person committed suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head twice and once through the heart.  The coroner didn't indicate the order in which the suspect shot themselves. As it wouldn't matter as all three shots would have caused death.  We don't know why the suspect shot themselves, but are assured by our investigation that all officers involved in the incident, acted in the highest standards of law enforcement.  No questions will be consider now or in the future as we have decided what happened and don't want to hear any wild ass conspiracy theories.  Thank you for your time."  

Or something like that.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I have no qualms with them shooting her. She hit two officers and the capital has LOTS of pedestrians not to mention it's the center of power.. oh wait.

[Brian37]

I have no qualms with them shooting her. She hit two officers and the capital has LOTS of pedestrians not to mention it's the center of power.. oh wait.

Um no, if when she first tried to hit them, and she got shot where it started, that would be one thing. But if they simply went gang stile on her when the chase ended, then that is a matter of bad training. I do think far too much of police training can IN SOME CASES create overreach. Look at the NY cases last year. One had an unarmed guy shot. Another 9 bystanders got hit.

If it turns out she had no gun, then there should have been no reason, when she wrecked the car at the end of the chase, to shoot her at that point.

But if she did have a gun and aimed it at them, even at the end of the chase, then yea, that would be justified.

[LikelyToBreak]

Okay, I did make it sound a bit like they just shot an innocent bystander and are now trying to cover it up.  But, it really bothers me when they with-hold information after some incident occurs.

In my county a guy was shot, then after 24 hours the Sheriff said he committed suicide.  And the "ear-witness" reports didn't collaborate the "official" story.  The fact the officer sent to arrest the guy for what was probably not a crime, had reportedly stolen something from a third party and the guy said to have committed suicide had testified against him.  The "official" story was full of holes but the DA refused to look into the matter.

Sometimes the "law enforcement" officials, with-hold any information which may make them look bad.   Point I was trying to make is, I would take anything the "officials" say with a grain of salt.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Ok, look at facts.
A. She tried to crash the gates at the WH.
B. Hit a cop, 2 actually
C. Speed off at high speed toward capitol hill
D. Put many, many lives in danger driving extremely dangerously through DC
E. Nobody (apparently) knew her motives, terror, assassination, etc.
F. A speeding car IS a dangerous weapon. Ever tried to stop one barehanded? I bet you lost.

[Aroura33]

A car is a dangerous weapon, especially a speeding one.  However, at the time they shot her, she had wrecked and was no longer speeding.  Also, aren't cops taught other ways to disable speeding vehicles?  I mean, as far as I know, car chases do not have to end in the suspect getting shot, that usually only happens in they get out and try and run, or if they brandish a weapon.  
She was doing neither of those things.  Why didn't the shoot out her tires?

This seems to me a strange kind of prejudice.  They killed her, IMO, because of location. She was too close to important people. If the same thing had happened in a regular town, gate crashing a wealthy gated community and then driving around it too fast, they probably would have laid out spike strips, or more blockades, shot out her tires, or found another way of dealing with it once she finally stopped a least.  I'm assuming she was unarmed here, as all statements so far say she was.

[stromboli]

Lady was unarmed. Had a kid in the car. This one will take some unraveling.

[Colanth]

Look at the NY cases last year. One had an unarmed guy shot. Another 9 bystanders got hit.

I don't know the details of the first one (but in the approximately 1/2 second you get to make a decision, it's difficult to make the same determination the shooting board gets 3 months to figure out), but the second one wasn't bad training - it violated all training.  You DO NOT FIRE into a crowd.  Even if it's at an armed perpetrator.  That's training.  And the problem was that shots were fired in a crowd.  (Of course the press would have crucified the cop who had slammed a pipe into the perp's arm, disarming him without risking anyone else's safety, but crippling the perp for life.  "Police brutality" would probably have been the nicest thing they'd say - not "cool under pressure".)

If they had been my guys, they would have been given rotating tours making sure that the bridges linking Staten Island to New Jersey weren't stolen.  In the winter.  For the next as many years as they had to retirement.  Which they would get with no pensions.

Don't look for more involved reasons when "psychologically unfit for the job" is the simplest explanation.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Police in DC especially at the capitol are authorized to use deadly force. You can question it all you like, but in DC protecting pols takes priority..

[Solitary]

Stopping her is one thing, but shooting at her and killing her after she was stopped with a very young girl in the car is a little too much when she didn't even have a gun. She had mental problems before this happened. Now the little girl has no mother because cops can't subdue an unarmed woman after they have the car stopped. Are guns and violence the only solution anymore? I thought Tasers were going to stop having to kill unarmed criminals. Just like the man that got attacked and ran over a biker because he was scared for his young daughter this woman did the same thing, and yet in this case it wasn't justified because it was the police with guns drawn?  :-?  Solitary