Shots fired in DC - Discuss.

What a strange story. Lady tries to ram two barricades and is shot dead by cops. Also, she had a child with her.

Suicide by cop?

Rofl_Mao wrote: I'd say. You would probably need something a little bit bigger than a sedan to plow through the gates of the White House...

Yeah, based on what I've seen so far definitely seems like suicide / gone crazy situation.

Sucks though, I hope all the cops are okay.

Something doesn't add up in this story... 

from US News:

A Capitol police officer was hurt as he was speeding to confront her and hit a barrier that popped up in the street. The two injured officers were exempt from the government shutdown and required to work but were not being paid.

I'm not saying I know anything about it, it just is a strange story. I read that they thought she was mentally ill minutes after it happened. I though it was strange that they would know that in minutes after it went down... As usually with the hippa laws you would think it would take a while to make that assessment. Course she was trying to run over barricades... so there's that...

FE wrote: It was strange how fast they labeled her as "crazy" too. I don't know... it is just a really strange story.

Yeah, I think the crazy label was perfectly appropriate.

I do wish that there were more "nonlethal" ways of stopping a car at those barricades. Also, they seem rather ineffective if a soccer mom in an Infinity can cause that much ruckus.

FE-I'm going to have to start a healthcare thread now that you're back to posting ;)

I'm with FE on this. (not Obamacare) It seems weird that the police couldn't identify that there was a child n the vehicle before opening fire. I would consider the fact they didn't know who was in the car as reason enough not to shoot. Also property damage and failure to stop can't justify shooting somebody. You never know they have mental health issues.

And really what was the probable worst case scenario here? I doubt she really got anywhere near the buildings/politicians and it seemed like the public were in general well out of the way. So if it was a car filled with sem-tex it was reasonably well contained. Not that the police look to have really believed this was likely seeing how closely they were following in the videos I saw.

I would think the mentally ill tag came about pretty organically after this nutter started zooming about Capital Hill. I know as soon as me and my friends heard about this and found out it was a woman. We were pretty quick to start making jokes about the fact she was probably on her period and just trying to park. (this was before we heard of any shooting)

FE wrote: You sure you want to go there?.

Actually, probably not because I'm sure we'd all agree. No fun in that.

impulse418 wrote: Yeah, a vehicle is a weapon  and if you are willing to do anything to flee the scene include nearly killing me. I would also pump that car full of lead. It's also pretty damn hard to see a car seat in a car when you are in a high speed chase.

I guess I just think in this case, shooting should not have been the default position.