(Editor’s note: This is Part 4 of an investigative series seeking the truth in the police shooting of unarmed, suburban mother Miriam Carey outside the nation’s Capitol on Oct. 3, 2013. Read Part 1: 'Murdered' mom cover-up implodes as report released and Part 2: Police report: Federal cops caused deadly chase and Part 3: Attorney: Machismo killed unarmed mom )
WASHINGTON – The official police report into the death of Miriam Carey obtained by WND is riddled with blacked-out sections and missing information.
When the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department was ordered by the mayor's officer to turn over the police report on the deadly shooting of the unarmed, suburban mother to WND, a police representative said only names would be redacted (blacked out), for purposes of privacy.
But this is one of the 322 pages of that report received by WND:
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That is not an isolated example:
- 12 pages in the report are entirely blacked out
- 15 are mostly blacked out
- 22 pages are partially blacked out
(That tally does not include numerous blacked-out sections and pages that appear to be redacted to protect personal information that might identify the witnesses.)
Some of the blacked-out pages just include a heading marked "Evidence."
Some just have a date.
Some just have the handwritten word "Detective" written at the top of a piece of notebook paper, indicating they are either notes or statements from an officer.
One has an entire email reply blacked out.
Some of the redactions appear to be descriptions of videos.
But that was hardly all that was not included.
Also missing from the report were:
- Security and traffic camera videos
- Police radio recordings or transcripts
- Crime-scene photographs
- Ballistics reports
- Statements from the 4 officers who fired weapons
- 38 witness statements
- Verbatim transcripts of all the statements
- The analysis of whether the shooting was justified
- A summary of findings
Carey family attorney Eric Sanders told WND that what was not in the report was stunning.
His assessment of the report?
"It's nothing. It's not worth the paper it's written on," he told WND.
In fact, Sanders said, so much is missing, and so much police work was apparently never done, it shows there really never was an investigation into why Carey was killed.
Particularly noteworthy is that nothing in the report indicates how investigators came to the conclusion that the chase and deadly shooting of Carey were justified.
There is not even any evidence investigators did reach that conclusion, even though a Justice Department statement on July 10, 2014, announced:
"After a thorough review of all the evidence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office concluded that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers who were involved in the shooting used excessive force or possessed the requisite criminal intent at the time of the events."
In its Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request, WND specifically sought the final report and the findings of the shooting investigation:
"All materials used in the investigation into the October 3, 2013, fatal shooting of Miriam Carey, by uniformed agents of the U.S. Secret Service, and officers of the U.S. Capitol Police Department, to include the final report and findings of that investigation."
WND asked Sanders, a former New York Police Department officer, if such findings and an analysis of whether a shooting was justified are normally done and included in such a police report?
"Usually you have some findings because every major police department does have a shooting team," he said. "And a shooting team not only looks at the weapons discharges but also makes sure the discharges are within department guidelines. That wasn't done here."
Sanders said that was proved in one particular email exchange between Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Assistant Chief of Police of the Internal Affairs Bureau Michael Anzallo and someone (name redacted) in the United States Attorney's Office District Of Columbia (USADC):
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:12 AM
From: (redacted) (USADC)
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:12 AM
To: Anzallo, Michael (MPD)
Cc: Dixon, George (MPD)
Subject: Capitol caseHi. My memo is now with the Ron, so we are nearer to a decision in this case. I just saw (redacted) and he (redacted) mentioned (redacted) that (redacted) he needed to do the final report if we decline. I told him that I thought that doing so would put MPD right in the middle of the upcoming litigation, and that, because your Use of Force policy is different from USCPs, which is different from (redacted) USSS, that might create a big issue if (redacted) IAD renders an opinion as to whether this particular shooting was justified. Just my thoughts…
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:16 AM
From: Anzallo, Michael (MPD)
To: (redacted) USADC
Cc: Dixon, George (MPD)
Subject: RE: Capitol caseThat is correct. We will not be doing a final report. We would like to include your memo in the case file if possible so we can turn over to the Capitol and USSS. Thanks.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:34 AM
From: (redacted) USADC
To: Anzallo, Michael (MPD)
Cc: Dixon, George (MPD)
Subject: RE: Capitol caseUnfortunately, we don’t release our memo. If that changes in this particular case (which would be a decision made at a much higher level than me), I will let you know. Capitol and USSS will both be doing their own reports/summaries. We won’t be turning the memo over to them either. I think we will also be returning the videos to USCP, but I’m waiting for final word on that.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 12:27 PM
From: Anzallo, Michael (MPD)
To: (redacted) USADC
Cc: Dixon, George (MPD)
Subject: RE: Capitol caseNo problem (redacted.) Once we get the final decision we’ll forward a copy of the file to both USSS and US Capitol. We’ll also return the video to US Capitol.
Sanders said it showed that not only did the MPD not intend to do a final report, the U.S. attorney's office might decline to do one, as well.
Additionally, and significantly, Sanders said it showed the U.S. attorney's office was advising the MPD against providing evidence that might result in litigation.
"That's what that email shows. It's telling them not to do an analysis, because they have a different department. It doesn't matter if it's a different department. They know how to read the rules," said Sanders.
"Believe me, if the rules favored them, they would have released their findings."
So, did he believe an analysis was even done at all?
"No, there was not."
WND contacted MPD to ask why the final report and findings of an investigation that would prove the deadly shooting was justified were not in the material the department provided, but did not receive a response.
On Oct. 3, 2013, 34-year-old dental hygienist and single mother Miriam Carey drove the 265 miles to Washington from her home in Stamford, Connecticut, with her 13-month-old daughter strapped into the backseat.
At 2:13 p.m., she drove up to a White House entrance guard post at 15th and E streets NW, apparently by mistake, because she immediately made a U-turn to try to leave. The post was apparently poorly manned, because no one on duty stopped her from entering. However, an off-duty Secret Service agent did, for some unexplained reason, try to prevent her from leaving. Seven minutes later, Carey was dead.
Once she left the White House, federal officers pursued Carey down Pennsylvania Avenue. Two Capitol Police officers and two Secret Service offers shot at her. Those shots were fired at Garfield Circle, just below the Capitol west lawn, and where the chase ended at 2nd Street and Maryland Avenue, about two blocks from the Capitol.
Even long before WND uncovered all of the additional details contained in the police report, once he heard the basic facts of the case in December of 2013, famed civil libertarian Nat Hentoff said from all of the evidence he had seen in WND’s reports, which he called very thorough and easily corroborated, "[T]his is a classic case of police out of control and, therefore, guilty of plain murder."
What did Sanders make of all of the redactions in the report?
"If there was information that would have helped the police they would have been all too happy to release it. That means the information would have helped the Carey family's legal position."
Sanders is representing the Carey family in a $150 million claim against the Department of Justice, the Secret Service, the Capitol Police and the Washington D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.
The attorney said what police did release had backfired; in particular, a picture provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office almost a year ago.
"This is why they released that picture of her allegedly striking that barrier, they thought that would help them. The problem is, they forgot we know how to analyze these things just like they do."
Sanders noted that, according to a witness at the White House who was on vacation from Australia, Carey did not attempt to ram the White House gates or a barrier.
In fact, the witness indicated Carey tried to drive around the temporary gate an off-duty Secret Service officer dragged in front of her car:
"A male was pulling a gate in front of the vehicle to keep the vehicle in the area. The vehicle attempted to flee the area but the man pulled the gate back in front of the vehicle."
If police had provided WND with security camera video from the White House guard post, what would it have revealed about that off-duty officer's confrontation with Carey?
"It would have shown that she tried to avoid him. It would have shown that he did not show his badge, his identification as an officer. It's now established he never identified himself," said the attorney and former police officer.
"As a matter of fact, if he did identify himself, I guarantee you they would have included his statement and it would have said 'I identified myself in a loud and clear voice.'"
There was no statement from that officer included in the report.
There were also no statements from any of the four officers who fired shots at Carey.
"They would have given us the basis of why they believe they had the right to fire on her vehicle," Sanders told WND.
"And I think the reason why they didn't turn it over is because it didn't favor them. It would have revealed they had no legal basis for shooting."
What did he think the security camera video from the White House guard post might have shown?
"It would have confirmed my hypothesis the guards were not paying attention and she drove through the area because they failed to maintain their post. And all they did was play catch up and then overcompensated by trying to stop her and then pursuing her."
The attorney estimated 90 cameras in security-heavy Washington must have captured what happened to Carey.
Based on the documents in the report, it appears police used video from 10 security cameras and 7 traffic cameras.
What could those missing videos have shown?
"The same thing. It would have given us a fuller picture of what actually happened," he replied. "If the missing data would have supported their legal position and shown why they had a legal right to use force, they would have released it."
Sanders said the missing radio recordings and transcripts of those conversations would have shown whether the on-duty Secret Service officer at the White House guard gate, who said he saw Carey's infant daughter in the back seat of her car, informed the rest of the police of the child's presence.
The missing photographs?
"They would have told us where everyone was located and their angles relative to her. People have different recollections but a picture is more objective. People filter information based on their experiences in life but you can't filter a photo that has no feelings."
The police report said 72 witnesses were interviewed but only 34 witness statements were in the report. What about the 38 missing witness statements?
"It' s hard to tell because it looks like they really only have statements from maybe five people. There are probably a good five statements, six or seven, tops," noted the attorney, adding, "A lot of those statements are duplicates."
What about the fact there were no verbatim transcripts of the witness statements, just paraphrased statements in what Sanders described as cop-talk?
"That's telling in, and of, itself. But even their paraphrases, which try to imply the shooting was justified, show that it was not."
Sanders also observed, "There was no ballistics report. No testing of the group of responding officers' firearms, only the four identified. No analysis of the recovered .357 cartridges from, presumably, Miriam’s body."
What did the attorney learn that he did not know before he saw the report?
"A number of things," he said, then rattled off a list:
- "We know how the police came up with their alibi for the unjustified shooting."
- "We know it was a lie that they didn't know there was a child in the car from the start."
- "We know there was no one who tried to stop her from entering that area (the White House guard post.)"
- "We know that is a fact because they don't say otherwise. They're actually ignoring that fact."
- "We know for sure that when she was leaving, she didn't strike the gate, she didn't intentionally strike this man."
- "It was an accident because more than one witness said the off-duty officer was pulling the gate in front of her."
- "We know he never identified himself as an office from the statement of the on-duty officer."
- "None of the statements we do have from police officers said she was speeding."
- "We also know none of the officers estimated her to be going 80 mph. That was completely fabricated."
What did he still not know because it wasn't in the report?
"We still don't know what the legal basis is for the claim her killing was justified or why they tried to stop her in the first place."
Sanders paused, then with a touch of bewilderment, concluded, "They had to say something. They had to say why they discharged their weapons. We still don't know that."
Follow Garth Kant @DCGarth