A joint training exercise ending today, in addition to barricades and checkpoints placed at the White House, may have played a role in the horrific police execution of a woman today at the nation’s capitol.

Capital Shield 14 trained first responders to “perfect their skills”

According to a report featured on Army.mil, this is the last day federal, state, local and municipal agencies will be testing “interagency operability during a crisis impacting the District of Columbia,” as part of a joint exercise known as Capital Shield 14.

“Capital Shield 2014 is a joint training exercise in the National Capital Region, or NCR, that runs from Sept. 30 thru Oct. 3, and is hosted by the Joint Force Headquarters – National Capital Region,” the army’s report says. The NCR includes Washington, D.C.’s metropolitan area.

The drill “also trains and prepares the Department of Defense to provide defense support to civil authorities and employ appropriate force protection measures as requested,” force protection measures necessary to protect the homeland like those employed today in the brutal shooting of the 34-year-old dental hygienist.

The ongoing drill might be one reason first responders were in a heightened state of alert when they shot the panicked mother at least 12 times, who was likely just lost in a maze of government shutdown and joint training exercise barricades and checkpoints.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

According to the Washington Post, the woman ran “into a security checkpoint at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The driver went about 20 yards, B.J. Campbell said, before rapidly turning the car around at the concrete security barriers.”

Miriam Carey / Facebook

The fact the woman, reportedly Miriam Carey from Stamford, Conn., was not armed didn’t stop media from reporting there were “shots exchanged” at the Capitol, nor did it stop officers from responding with lethal force, nor did it stop D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier from saying the officers “acted heroically.”

One can only hope Capital Shield 2014 trains law enforcement to react in a better manner than they did today, where a 20-car police chase could barely catch a lone woman in a car who we are learning had a “history of mental health issues.”