Connecticut woman in D.C. car chase shot in back by officers: attorney

(Reuters) - A Connecticut woman who was chased down and shot dead last year by Washington D.C. police after trying to ram her car through a White House barrier was struck in the back by bullets in her fatal encounter with officers, her family's lawyer said. The shooting death of Miriam Carey, 34, last October made national headlines. Her one-year-old baby, who was unhurt, was in the car with her when she got into a high-speed chase that injured two police officers and led to a Capitol lockdown. Carey died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the findings of a District of Columbia medical examiner's autopsy cited last week on the website of attorney Eric Sanders, who represents the family. She suffered three gunshot wounds to the back, and was also hit by a bullet to her head and another that entered her left arm, according to the October 4 autopsy results, a copy of which Sanders' firm linked to on its website. A representative for the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner could not be reached for comment. Sanders, who represents the Carey family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the woman's sister in January against the U.S. government, has argued that the direction of the bullet wounds suggest she was moving away from officers when she was shot and did not pose enough of a threat to justify the shooting. A representative for the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department could not be reached for comment. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)