A woman in a black car rammed the security barriers at the White House on Thursday afternoon, striking U.S. Secret Service officers in the process. She then led the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police in a high-speed chase around the Capitol Building complex. She rammed at least one police car near the Capitol building, crashed near the Hart Senate Office Building, and was then shot and killed by law enforcement officials.
The driver of the vehicle has been identified as thirty-four year old Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut. Her one-year old daughter was in the back seat of the car during the incident, but was uninjured. Reports indicate that Carey suffered from mental illness, perhaps including post-partum depression or psychosis. Carey’s boyfriend contacted police in December claiming that she was acting delusional, and that she had said that the president had placed the city of Stamford under a lockdown and bugged her house.
A Capitol Police officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the incident when his vehicle collided with a protection barrier that was deployed from the ground on Constitution Avenue. He was airlifted from the Capitol Grounds via a U.S. Park Police helicopter.
U.S. Capitol Police officials earlier announced an ‘active shooter’ situation and placed the Capitol complex on lock-down, asking people inside to shelter-in-place. The White House was also locked-down for a period of time. Both lock-downs have since been lifted, and there is no indication of any ongoing threat.
A video is available of part of the chase (Alhurra, via Fox News Channel, via Mediaite). Alhurra is an Arab-language television channel operated by the United States government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors.