The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
20-year-old woman charged after ramming Capitol cruiser
Shots fired by cops during arrest; D.C. streets shut 3 hours.
A 20-year-old woman described as “erratic and aggressive” drove a vehicle into a U.S. Capitol Police cruiser and was taken into custody Wednesday morning, a disruption that closed down streets near the Capitol for nearly three hours.
Shots were fired during the arrest attempt, but the event appeared to be criminal in nature with “no nexus to terrorism,” said Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki. No one was injured, and the U.S. Capitol remained open.
Late Wednesday afternoon, police identified the driver as Taleah Everett, of no fixed address. She was charged with seven counts of assault on a police officer, among other offenses.
According to online court records in Maryland, Everett was due in court Wednesday morning in a domestic-violence case at roughly the same time as the incident at the Capitol. She was the subject of a no-contact order, the records show.
Relatives of Everett in Maryland did not immediately respond to messages.
Malecki described the woman as an “erratic and aggressive driver.” As police attempted to stop her, she made a U-turn and fled, nearly hitting officers and striking at least one other vehicle, Malecki said. A brief pursuit followed before the woman was stopped.
The chase took place near the U.S. Botanic Garden. Malecki said shots were fired “during the attempt to arrest the suspect.”
The disruption prompted a large police response just as lines of people were waiting to get into a nearby congressional office building. Streets near the Capitol were closed, and the Sergeant at Arms advised lawmakers and staff to stay away from the area. The streets reopened nearly three hours later.
Scott Ferson, president of Liberty Square Group, a Boston-based communications firm, said he suddenly saw a dozen Capitol Police cars moving quickly toward the Botanic Garden. Ferson said he heard what sounded like three gunshots.
“I heard pop, pop, pause, pop, and I said, ‘Oh, that was gunfire,’” he said in a phone interview. Police told everyone in the area to get off the street, but then things seemed to calm down and Ferson headed to his meeting.
Almost exactly one year ago, U.S. Capitol Police shot a man after he pulled a weapon at a U.S. Capitol checkpoint as spring tourists thronged Washington. In 2013, Miriam Carey, a 34-year-old dental hygienist from Connecticut, was shot and killed by Capitol Police officers who had pursued her from the White House, where she made a U-turn at a checkpoint. Her young daughter was inside the car at the time.