Is anyone else stunned by the police killing Mum driver?

[LaraOnline]

Hi there,
I was driving with my hubby when we heard this terrible story about the young mother who rammed the White House barricade, was chased around town by more than a dozen cops, and then shot.... dead!
All with a one-year-old child in the car!

What is going on here?
Is this another case of 'those crazy Americans'...because it sure seemed over the top to me.
My husband was shocked, and upset, perhaps even more so than me.
It just seemed soooo over the top.

Fancy staging a massive car chase and then shooting a young mother for momentarily 'losing it'.
Fancy shooting her DEAD in front of her infant!
Haven't the US police got more sophisticated methods?

 

[Sparklelu]

Have you seen the video?

 

[LaraOnline]

Eek, there's a video?



ETA: I know this might make me sound very 'old school', but I won't be googling a video of that. Thank you for the heads up though.

This young woman was mentally depressed, and the barricades did their job. The 'shots fired' story that the media put forward was actually the story of an unarmed person being shot to death, repeatedly shot apparently!! Was that shooting from a single 'authorised' person, or from several officers at the scene? Words.Fail.Me.

As professionals, surely more sophisticated methods are in order? Why such a high profile chase of a psychologically fragile person?
Even a kindy kid knows that if you give up the chase...the (victim) will stop running...

 

[Sparklelu]

I'm talking about the actual incident being caught on video. Not her being shot. She deliberately rammed police officers evaded them by running stuff over and careening down a crowded street. The barricades did not do their job, she rammed them in her attempt to evade the police. They didn't just run up to her car and shoot her. Actually the attempted to get her out if the car and she drove backwards into them. They had no way of knowing her true intent and she was yards away from government buildings and random innocent people. She was mentally unstable . Did she deserve to die, no, but her actions gave the police no choice. Her refusal to stop caused them to do what they did. And they will be haunted by it forever.

 

[movie zombie]

well stated, Elisa.

 

[LaraOnline]

The stories over here certainly did not report that she was running over a group of police that just happened to be there - rather that the injury-free barricade incident came first, then the gaggle of cops/ secret service people gathered around her, pointing guns, then the much more dangerous evasion where she ran sped off in her car.
My understanding was that the police were in front of her car immediately AFTER she drove towards the buildings, and that she ran over people as she attempted to escape from 16 officers pointing guns and attempting to block her path.

I know the cops / secret service people would have thought the barricade-jumping incident was the possible beginning of a terrorist incident but that's even more reason to have a more sophisticated approach. How many injuries could there have been in such a heavy handed car chase?
Perhaps this woman is yet another (indirect) victim of the gun free-for-all in the US - if they didn't think she was armed, why would they have been so heavy-handed? The high percentage of personal gun ownership in the US must make the cops super jumpy.

 

[DNB]

I live in the DC area. She was using her car as a deadly weapon. She may have had mental issues, but she was using deadly force. There were multiple crime scenes. Don't let her family sway you. Watch the video of the small part of the event. She endangered a lot of people and the fact that she's a mother isn't the issue.

Geez, This was not about guns. It was purely about her actions using her vehicle as a weapon.

 

[movie zombie]

I live in the DC area. She was using her car as a deadly weapon. She may have had mental issues, but she was using deadly force. There were multiple crime scenes. Don't let her family sway you. Watch the video of the small part of the event. She endangered a lot of people and the fact that she's a mother isn't the issue.

Geez, This was not about guns. It was purely about her actions using her vehicle as a weapon.

QFT.

I don't often agree that LE acts appropriately but they did in this instance.

and she did injure a LE officer when she rammed his car.

 

[movie zombie]

I stand corrected: the officer's injuries were self-inflicted in that he rammed the barricade as well.

http://www.infowars.com/congress-gives-standing-ovation-to-dc-cops-for-executing-unarmed-mother/

and I will buy into the fact they could have fired at her tires; however, her car could have gone out of control and caused damage to innocent bystanders.

 

[LaraOnline]

When we heard it on the radio news, my first thought was maybe she had been cut off from payments due to the government payment issue.
Anyway, it is all very, very sad.

 

[LaraOnline]

I live in the DC area. She was using her car as a deadly weapon. She may have had mental issues, but she was using deadly force. There were multiple crime scenes. Don't let her family sway you. Watch the video of the small part of the event. She endangered a lot of people and the fact that she's a mother isn't the issue.

Geez, This was not about guns. It was purely about her actions using her vehicle as a weapon.

My understanding is that she used her car specifically as a deadly weapon after the other specifically deadly weapons (guns) were shoved in her face by an armada of cops.
Up until that point she was just a temporarily crazy lady suffering post natal depression who was driving very dangerously.
I mean, we are all using cars, and they can all become deadly weapons at any point we lose control of them. She had lost control, that's for sure.

As for a congressional 'standing ovation' for the cops in this debacle... culture shock strikes again this woman was shot repeatedly.

Sorry, I really just wanted to express my shock and disbelief at this event, I don't want to offend anyone.

 

[DNB]

There was a lot more involved than just that small bit of video. What were they supposed to do just let her keep ramming the barriers specifically set up to slow someone down intent on doing harm? She tried to knock down the barriers to the White House. The Secret Service's job is to protect the President (the office, what it stands for, not just the person). Regardless, cops are not trained to "wound" they are trained to shoot to kill because that's the only way you can really stop someone intent on doing harm.