(Oct. 7, 2013) Nearly a year before the car chase that led to her death in the nation’s Capital last week, Miriam Carey told police she was a prophet and that President Obama would “place the city of Stamford under a ‘lockdown’ and that he had her and her residence under electronic surveillance,” (Miriam Carey, identified as Capitol Hill car chase driver, was taken for mental-health evaluation,” CBS News, Oct. 5).
Another news report said, "Authorities searching the home of a Connecticut woman who rammed barricades and led police on a chase near the U.S. Capitol found discharge papers from a 2012 mental health evaluation that listed prescriptions to treat schizophrenia and other mental disorders” (“Source: Mental health paperwork found at home of Miriam Carey after Capitol chase,” CNN, Oct. 4).
Carey’s death occurred the day after the Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriffs’ Association published our latest joint study, “Justifiable Homicides: What is the Role of Mental Illness?” In it, we report that, while the use of deadly force in the line of duty has declined over the last 30 years, its use after a law enforcement agent is attacked has risen 67%.
We don’t yet know the precise role of mental illness in Carey’s death. We do know she was shot by law enforcement after she rammed barricades and police cruisers, injuring two officers, and that multiple people who knew her said she struggled with post-partum mental health issues after her daughter’s birth last year.
“Unfortunately, if someone does have a crisis, a moment of instability, how do people put in place to protect, how do they help you,” Carey’s sister, Ann Carey-Jones told Grio. “{H]ow can they contain the situation and give you the help that you deserve?” (“Family of Miriam Carey: ‘Shooting was not justified,’” Oct. 5).
That’s the question we work to answer every day.
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