The Justice Department has decided not to bring criminal charges against two police who shot and killed a woman after a wild car chase from the White House to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol last fall.
The woman, 34-year-old Miriam Carey of Stanford, Conn., struck a security officer with her car near the White House on Oct. 3 before driving off at high speed. Carey's 1-year-old daughter was in the car at the time of the incident but was unharmed.
Prosecutors said Thursday that their months-long investigation into the shooting concluded that officers from the Secret Service and Capitol Police did not use excessive force, according to The Associated Press.
The two officers each fired nine rounds in the confrontation with Carey.
The Washington Post says:
"Prosecutors noted that the entire incident took only seven minutes and included attempted breaches at the White House and Capitol complex, and that police twice opened fire on the black Infiniti on crowded streets, including eight shots fired at Garfield Circle after police said Carey drove onto a sidewalk and forced officers to jump out of the way.
"They 'concluded that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers who were involved in the shooting used excessive force,' according to the statement from Ronald C. Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The statement says no federal or local charges are warranted, and no civil rights violations occurred."
Carey was reportedly a licensed dental hygienist who suffered from mental illness but had no criminal record. A motive for the incident has never been determined.
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