Lawyer Calls For Justice Department Probe Of Capitol Hill Shooting By Police

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A lawyer for a Stamford, Conn., woman shot dead by police after a car chase outside the U.S. Capitol is requesting a Justice Department investigation.

Attorney Eric Sanders said in a letter that he believes the officers who shot Miriam Carey mishandled the encounter and should be criminally prosecuted.

On Oct. 3, with her 19-month-old daughter in her car, Carey sped onto a driveway leading to the White House, over a set of barricades. When she couldn't get through a second barrier, she spun the car in the opposite direction and then sped down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Carey, who was raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, was soon surrounded by police cars, but drove off, careening around a traffic circle and past the north side of the Capitol. Video shot by a TV cameraman showed police pointing firearms at her car before she rammed a Secret Service vehicle and continued driving.

Police fatally shot Carey a block away. The child was not harmed.

Officers with the Capitol Police and the Secret Service fired shots, authorities said.

Police records show Carey previously told police that government cameras kept her under surveillance and that President Barack Obama communicated with her.

The D.C. police department is investigating the use of force, which is standard protocol for police-involved shootings.

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