U.S. Capitol breach draws attention to 2013 shooting of Miriam Carey
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The police treatment of the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was a slap in the face for the family of Miriam Carey

Carey was 34-years-old and unarmed when Capitol Police gunned her down in 2013 after she attempted a U-turn at a checkpoint near the Capitol grounds. 

Memorial photo of Miriam Carey, a black woman, surrounded by flowers.
Miriam Carey’s memorial photo. She was shot and killed by police offers in Washington, D.C. in October of 2013. Photo: motherjones.com

Her 18-month-old daughter was in the backseat and thankfully survived what became a car chase with her mother at the wheel. 

But for the gang of Trump and Confederate flag-toting rioters who breached the historic landmark, destroying property along the way, the police seemed to show great restraint. 

Some social media footage even reveals officers appearing to wave the crowd inside the gates. 

If Miriam Carey was given the same courtesy, her older sister Valarie Carey believes it would have saved their family a great deal of pain. 

“They converged on the Capitol emboldened and emblazoned with the idea that their lives were not in danger and neither was their liberty or their freedom,” Carey told Hey, Black Mom! in a phone interview on Thursday. “And they weren’t arrested. They walked away alive. 

“It would have saved myself, my mom and my family and my niece and Miriam’s friends years, it would have saved us years of pain, if they would have exerted the same sort of restraint that they exerted yesterday.” 

Miriam Carey’s car was shot at 26 times. She drove her vehicle from near the White House to near the Capitol, the pursuit ending with her death after officers allegedly feared terrorism.  

Photo: Washington Post

Since the Capitol breach, videos have surfaced of participating Trump supporters bragging about occupying the building. But when Black Lives Matters protesters chose to march peacefully against police brutality in D.C. last year, they were met with officers’ strong-arm tactics. 

Wednesday wasn’t a good reminder for Carey and her family. 

“Yesterday was horrific, and all it did was just reopen wounds that haven’t been closed yet,” she said. “It kinda dug the knife a little bit deeper. Like, wow, my sister. I would have never in a million years thought that my sister would be a hashtag.”