Just 20 minutes into President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, Capitol Police chased a wild driver who ran seven red lights, raced through the streets at more than 60 miles per hour and almost struck police officers as he drove erratically toward the Capitol.
Then they let him go.
Some might compare the incident to the case of the unarmed suburban mother Miriam Carey, who made a wrong turn near the White House gate entrance and immediately tried to leave on Oct. 3, 2013.
But she wasn't released.
Instead, she was killed in a hail of 27 bullets – hitting her three times in the back, once in the back of the head and once in her arm – with her infant daughter strapped into the backseat of her car.
TRENDING: To DEI for
On Jan. 20, an unidentified black male driver was trailed by police cars from two Maryland jurisdictions on streets north of the Hill, according to a report in CQ Roll Call. Police believed he fit the description of a robbery suspect.
Multiple sources said the man had almost hit Capitol Police and Supreme Court Police officers stationed at a barricade at East Capitol and Second streets. He finally stopped when he found his path blocked by a snow plow.
"Four officers from different jurisdictions attempted to remove the driver from the car, eventually tackling him to the ground," Roll Call reported. "He was placed in handcuffs and frisked for weapons."
The man was briefly detained, and then Capitol Police officers were ordered by superiors to release him.
He pulled away from the scene 20 minutes after Obama finished his speech.
In a statement to Roll Call, Capitol Police Lt. Kimberly Schneider said the man didn't pose a threat to the Capitol "particularly on State of the Union night when the USCP's primary mission to protect the Congress with an operationally enhanced, hardened perimeter is our primary focus."
"He should have been arrested for obvious traffic violations that took place in front of the Capitol," Jim Konczos, chairman of the Capitol Police Labor Committee's executive board, told the news site.
District Heights, Maryland, Police Chief Elliott Gibson told Roll Call the driver said the driver will be arrested later for a "host of traffic violations" that occurred in Maryland.
Konczos said he saw "no valid reason that this individual wasn't arrested."
After apparently making a wrong turn near the White House gate at 15th and E Street, Carey found herself surrounded by menacing federal officers brandishing firearms. Realizing her mistake, she made a U-turn and tried to depart.
But Secret Service agents and Capitol Police chased the dental hygienist down Pennsylvania Avenue at high speeds and forced her to a stop in the shadow of the nation's Capitol, having fired 27 bullets at her.
Despite their erratic marksmanship, the shooters somehow missed the 34-year-old's infant daughter, strapped into the backseat of Carey's black 2010 Infiniti G37Xs Coupe.
Even after more than a year, nobody knows exactly why Carey was killed by federal officers after she drove to the nation's capital from her home in Stamford, Connecticut.
That's because the Department of Justice, or DOJ, has refused to release the final investigative report.
But Carey family attorney Eric Sanders has told WND the Secret Service lied about what happened.
Secret Service 'lies'
Sanders pointed to two key elements in the Carey case in which he believed the Secret Service had lied.
The attorney said the real cause of the confrontation with Carey at the White House was not because she refused to stop, as the Secret Service had claimed. He said the incident only happened because Secret Service security was so lax that agents allowed her to accidentally enter the area without stopping her at the gate.
A former New York City Police officer himself, Sanders emphasized, "I've said from the beginning they (agents) were poorly trained and poorly disciplined, and now it's been confirmed."
That echoed what Sanders told WND in July 2014, when he marveled, "She somehow got past them. You know how she got past them? Because they were over there, smoking and joking and lackadaisical, just like I said from the beginning."
According to the attorney, the second clear instance of an official fudging of the truth was the explanation given as to why agents and officers shot Carey at the Garfield traffic circle, just below the Capitol.
Sanders said the reason authorities did not release photos of officers shooting at Carey at Garfield Circle is because their excuse is so weak.
"Officers were (supposedly) concerned because she was driving toward people on the sidewalk," he said. "They didn't show pictures of anyone on the sidewalk. They didn't show she was about to run anybody over, either."
The attorney explained what he saw as the absurdity of that reasoning.
"Think about that one for a minute," he said. "Let's assume there was someone in front of her car. And you morons are shooting at her from the back? What are you, stupid? So, you miss her and then you shoot (innocent bystanders?)"
Nonetheless, the DOJ cited that supposed concern for bystanders when it announced in July that no criminal charges would be filed against agents or officers.
Sanders called the DOJ's refusal to release the official report on the incident a "stonewall."Â The actions of the Secret Service and the Capitol Police were investigated by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department. That report was reviewed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, which is part of the Justice Department.
Congressional silence
WND has contacted more than 100 members of Congress seeking comment on the case and has not received one reply.
Some lawmakers were contacted multiple times, as WND made more than 170 inquiries.
In April, WND contacted 37 of the most civil-rights minded and libertarian-oriented members of Congress, presenting the facts of the case and asking if they believed the shooting was justified and if a congressional inquiry would be appropriate.
In July, WND made the same inquiry to the 18 members of the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Secret Service, the nine members of the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Capitol Police, and the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In September, WND made another inquiry to both the Homeland Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus and the chairmen of key congressional investigative committees.
Later, WND did not ask for any comment on whether the shooting may have been justified, but merely asked whether the public deserved to know what actually happened and why, by having the DOJ release the investigation.
On the day Carey was killed, members of Congress gave agents and officers a 30-second standing ovation when informed she was shot dead because of concerns of terrorism.
However, as WND reported in January 2014, when authorities were pursuing that vehicle they initially feared might pose a terrorist threat, they were able to quickly learn the car actually belonged to a young mother and dental hygienist from Connecticut, raising serious questions as to why they did not attempt to subdue her with non-lethal means.
Even after the credibility of the Secret Service has come under such serious scrutiny, WND still hasn't heard from even one member of Congress expressing interest in how and why Miriam Carey visited the nation's capital and ended up dead.