Miriam Carey’s sister: Deadly force wasn’t justified; attorney: death is a “failure of training”

Valarie Carey and Amy Carey-Jones, sisters of Miriam Carey who was shot and killed by police officers after a car chase between the White House and the Capitol building, appeared on “New Day” to come to her defense. They were joined by Eric Sanders, attorney for Miriam’s family.

“It actually doesn’t make any sense,” Valarie, a former NYPD police officer, said. “And the question really isn’t why was she in Washington; the question is why was she killed in Washington. And all I can see, when I look at that video, is my sister’s afraid and she’s frightened and she’s trying to get out of there. She’s confused. She doesn’t know which way to go. And I just can’t imagine what she was thinking as she’s trying to get away from bullet shots.”

She added, “My sister didn’t have a gun. She was not shooting a weapon from her vehicle, so deadly physical force of a weapon being fired upon her car – I don’t believe was justified.”

“She didn’t contribute to anything. She’s a U.S. citizen and she had absolutely every right to be in the nation’s Capitol.” Sanders said. “The police officers have protocols. The fact that someone, maybe emotionally disturbed, which they don’t know at the time, those are all factors you’re trained for. What happened here is a failure of training because that still doesn’t give you right to use deadly physical force. Every major police department has the same policy. You just can’t shoot at a fleeing person because you have to factor in that they may not understand, they may be confused, they may be lost; there’s a whole bunch of factors you have to consider. And you just don’t shoot at a vehicle. That’s not the way it works. ”

“She seemed fine. And the fact that they’re focusing only on her mental health – that doesn’t define an individual,” Amy said. “She was under treatment. She was the same loving person that we knew. She had, you know, her life challenges, but that doesn’t mean that she still wasn’t a person. She seemed fine when we last spoke to her. There were no signs of delusion or erratic behavior. No voices. None of those things are real conversations for us.”

“New Day” airs weekday mornings from 6-9 a.m. ET on CNN.

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