Stonewall cracking in case of 'murdered mom'

Miriam Carey

(This is a follow up to a three-part series on revelations in the Carey case made by a Secret Service officer. Read part 1, "Secret Service officer drops bombshell in 'murdered mom' case," Part 2, "Secret Service officer debunks feds' alibi for shooting 'murdered mom,'" and Part 3, "Whistleblower: Here's real reason feds shot, killed unarmed mom.")

WASHINGTON – The official stonewall over the killing of an unarmed woman, shot in the back by federal officers, is showing serious cracks and may be ready to crumble, because more informants are considering coming forward now that a pair of Secret Service officers have bravely gone public to question the death of Miriam Carey.

WND is hearing from other concerned officers considering telling their stories about federal law enforcement problems and sharing their insights into the Carey killing by Secret Service and Capitol Police officers more than three years ago.

Muhammad Abdul Raheem, an officer in the Uniformed Division of the U.S. Secret Service for 11 years, spoke to WND in a recent three-part series because he believes the killing of Miriam Carey by federal officers was unjust.

On Oct. 3, 2013, Secret Service and Capitol Police officers pursued and killed Carey after she entered a White House guard post apparently by mistake, then did nothing more that immediately make a U-turn and try to leave.

Bullet holes in rear of Carey's car
(Photo provided by Department of Justice)

Since going public, Raheem told WND, "There have been current and former USSS (United States Secret Service) employees who have contacted me with words and text messages of support.

"Most have said that what I am doing is a brave thing and to be safe."

The Trenton, New Jersey, native continued: "I don't recall anyone in the history of the USSS Uniformed Division speaking to the media. Let alone a black employee, which is always a concern for many people."

Find out what the feds are covering up, Read WND Books' "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey"

Not everyone in the Secret Service is happy with him.

"I have also heard that some people are upset and felt that I shouldn't have gone to the media about the Carey incident. Some people have said that I'm disgruntled because I am on administrative leave. My response is, even if was disgruntled, would that change the facts and details about the Carey case?

"I didn't create this, I'm just standing up for what's right," Raheem asserted.

"Most people do not know why I'm on administrative leave," he continued. "If employees and the general public knew about my situation, this, too, would be an embarrassment for the USSS/UD (Secret Service Uniformed Division). This being the same group of people who violated Miriam Carey's human rights."

Raheem first stepped forward anonymously to blow a hole in the feds' Carey stonewall when, on Oct. 2, he told WND:

"Everybody knew it was a cover-up."

Fellow officers thought "someone was going to jail over it because it was such an obvious bad shooting."

"They all knew it was unlawful to pursue Carey because no felony had been committed."

"Secret Service policy had been so obviously violated."

Federal officers had lied about the facts of the case.

“Lying is so prevalent, they don’t even have to tell people to lie. People are so programmed, they don’t have to be told to lie. It’s done out of fear.”

Then, on Oct. 30, former Secret Service officer Donald Jackson, a five-year veteran of the force's Uniformed Division, came forward to tell WND that at least three members of first lady Michelle Obama's staff had asked him about the shooting of Carey, questioning whether it was necessary.

"I honestly believe there could have been a way that that [Carey's] vehicle could have been stopped without using deadly force," Jackson told WND.

U.S. Capitol Police officers and Secret Service agents surround Miriam Carey's car at Garfield Circle on Oct. 3, 2013

Jackson resigned in April 2014, and, at the time Carey was killed in 2013, he was the "head person" working at the east gate entrance to the White House.

Then, when Raheem decided to go public, WND began publishing a three-part series on Nov. 29, based on a three-and-a-half hour interview with him.

In that series, Raheem told WND:

“Whoever fired the rounds that took her life unjustly, they should be charged. The superiors who tried to cover it up, or were involved, them as well.”

Information strongly indicated an official cover-up on the killing of Carey, because the Justice Department informed officers the shooting was justified at the beginning, rather than at the end, of its investigation.

Officers who shot Carey knew that national security was never at risk, because they did not act like they suspected she had a bomb.

Because those officers knew there was no risk to national security, they had no reason to shoot the unarmed, 34-year-old woman.

He attributed the shooting to bad decision-making and inadequate training, and a failure to properly de-escalate the situation.

He believed the deadly chain of events was set into motion when an off-duty Secret Service officer, who was passing by, dragged a bike rack in front of Carey as she tried to depart the White House guard post at 15th and E Streets. (Carey's car knocked the rack, which bumped the officer to the ground.)

And, once the Secret Service patrol units heard a radio report about an officer down, the chase was on.

WND has investigated the Carey case in depth since the beginning. The stunning facts and details of the investigation and the Justice Department cover-up are revealed in WND Books' "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey."

The law enforcement and civil liberties experts WND has spoken to in the past have not focused much on Carey's race as a factor, largely because the killing of the 34-year-old black woman seemed to them so blatantly unjust, regardless of her skin color.

But Raheem believes it is an essential part of the story.

"Of course, I believe that Miriam Carey's race was a factor. I also believe that the race of the officers involved was a factor," he told WND.

"I personally believe so because I have been a employee in the USSS/UD for enough time to understand the mentality of the agency," he continued. "The U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division has been infected with systemic racism since forever. This agency has a history of harassment, retaliation, discrimination and horrible treatment of officers of color."

But Raheem described it as equal opportunity mistreatment.

"The USSS/UD treats all employees, black, white and Hispanic pretty bad. This is why the attrition rate is so high. The numbers don't lie."

But, in his opinion, "black officers face the most harsh treatment."

"We have an agency that has a history of treating its own black employees badly. So, imagine how they felt about Miriam Carey."

Demonstrators on Capitol Hill protest the killing of Carey on the third anniversary of the Oct. 3, 2013, shooting.

He said that same "culture of racism" manifested in the daily activities of USSS/UD White House surveillance teams.

"These officers were the same ones who fired fatal rounds at Miriam Carey and at her child in the car. The racism and discrimination by White House surveillance teams had gotten so bad at one point that a black official requested that at least one black, or non-Caucasian, officer had to be on these teams to buffer out some of the blatant discrimination that they were exhibiting in their activities."

Find out what the feds are covering up, Read WND Books' "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey"

And he believed those attitudes affected how officers pursuing Carey looked at her.

"Miriam Carey was simply a black woman who didn't have the same level of humanity to these officers. If Miriam Carey was a white woman with a white baby in the car, these officers would have done everything in their power to solve that issue without the use of deadly force," Raheem insisted.

"Why? Because they would have seen her as their sister, wife or close loved one."

He then made another stark accusation.

Carey and her sisters celebrate their mother's birthday.

"If I had been an officer involved in shooting Miriam Carey, I would be in a prison today. This is the USSS/UD who left an innocent black officer on administrative leave as the scapegoat in the Salahi incident."

That was a reference to socialities Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who crashed a state dinner at the White House in 2009.

"That's just the way it is," Raheem maintained. "Racism in the USSS/UD is kind of like the elephant in the room. Black people fear that they will lose their jobs and quality of life for standing up to it."

"People like Lester Blount and I filed EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) cases against the agency. We were both soon placed on administrative leave. This is not a coincidence.

"Things like this put the fear of God in African-American employees," said the 11-year veteran of the Secret Service. "Most African American officers understand that Miriam Carey would probably be alive if she had been a Caucasian."

"Especially," he insisted, "when you know nature of the people who participated in this."

Raheem also said the Secret Service has a history of sending African-American employees for mental evaluations.

"One of the officers involved in the Miriam Carey shooting was removed from the surveillance cowboys not too long before that shooting because he was already mentally shaken up from something else that he had seen," said the officer.

Raheem said that officer had responded to a motor-vehicle accident on Constitution Avenue in which a woman was hit by a car.

Valarie Carey is comforted at the third annual memorial in Washington, D.C., of her sister Miriam's death

"I believe she succumbed to her injuries. He was so mentally shaken up by what he had seen that he was removed from his position on the surveillance team. Not too long after this, he was back out there firing rounds at Miriam Carey. A person who can't handle a pedestrian getting hit by a car can fire rounds unjustly? It doesn't add up."

He continued: "What's crazy is, people on the inside know that if this were a black officer, he would have been sent to headquarters for a mental evaluation, never to return to the surveillance team again. That's something that people on the inside would know."

Because the officers involved in the shooting were members of the U.S. Capitol Police and the uniformed division of the Secret Service, the investigation was done by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, or MPD.

Find out what the feds are covering up, Read WND Books' "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey"

Its report was reviewed by the office of the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., a branch of the Justice Department, or DOJ.

The Justice Department announced on July 10, 2014, the investigation had revealed no wrongdoing by the officers who shot and killed Carey and that no charges would be filed against them.

Miriam Carey's car after she was shot to death
(Photo provided by the Justice Department)

The DOJ said there was insufficient evidence to charge the officers, then took the unusual and extraordinary step of refusing to release the police report that would have confirmed or contradicted its finding.

So WND successfully sued the DOJ and obtained the report, which contained serious discrepancies between what witnesses reported and the official version of events.

The book "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey" details how:

Carey was shot in the back

Officers claimed they shot her in self-defense

Carey didn’t break any laws

Carey didn’t try to enter the White House grounds

Carey did not ram a White House gate

Officers did not try to prevent Carey from entering a White House guard post

Officers tried to prevent Carey from leaving a White House guard post

Officers gave no reason for stopping Carey

Officers gave no reason for pursuing Carey

Carey did not flee or speed away

Carey did not run over an officer

Police knew Carey was not a terrorist before they shot her

Her child in the backseat was covered in glass and blood

Secret Service officers violated their use-of-force policy

Police statements are missing

Witness statements are missing

Evidence is missing

Police refuse to release findings justifying the shooting

Even long before WND uncovered many of those details, 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."