A harrowing incident resulted in a lockdown of the Capitol as a 34-year-old woman rammed her car into a security barricade surrounding the White House on Thursday. The woman, identified by media and police as Miriam Carey, was struck and killed by law enforcement gunfire when she raced up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol building where Congress was in session. Two officers were injured in the incident: One was struck by the suspect’s car and one was injured when his car hit a barricade. Police confirmed that also in the car was a one-year-old girl later identified as the driver’s daughter. The girl was not hurt and was rescued by officers.
Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, told CNN that officials believed the woman driving the car may have had mental health problems. FBI and Homeland Security officials conducted a search of the Stamford, Connecticut apartment where she was said to have lived, as well as the surrounding area.
There was no sign that Carey was armed. ABC News quoted Carey’s mother as saying that Carey suffered from postpartum depression after her child was born.
