Woman Killed After D.C. Chase May Have Had Depression

By Mark Memmott / NPR

Published October 4, 2013 at 1:02 AM PDT

This story was published more than 10 years ago.

An officer stood just outside police tape Thursday as authorities investigated the car chase that began at the White House and ended near the Capitol.

The woman killed by police Thursday after a wild chase from the White House to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol has been identified by law enforcement authorities to The Associated Press, NPR and other news outlets as 34-year-old Miriam Carey of Stamford, Conn.

What motivated the driver to ram a security barrier outside the White House, strike a Secret Service officer with her vehicle and then drive off at high speed toward the Capitol Building -- all while there was a 1-year-old girl inside the car -- isn't yet known.

Miriam Carey's mother, Idella Carey, has told ABC News that her daughter "had post-partum depression after having [a] baby" last August. According to Idella Carey, "a few months later, she got sick. She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized."

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The Stamford Advocate adds that Miriam Carey "was a licensed dental hygienist and according to a local law enforcement official, she suffered from mental illness, but had no criminal record."

The little girl was not injured during the frightening incident.

Our colleagues at WSHU in Fairfield, Conn., report that "police fire, and other emergency vehicles [have] descended on a Woodside Green Condominiums near Scalzi Park in Stamford Thursday afternoon where the woman [Miriam Carey] allegedly lived. ... About 50 apartments were evacuated."

The Advocate writes that:

"According to public records, Carey lived near her family in Brooklyn, N.Y., from at least 1997 to 2009, when she moved to Stamford. She earned her dental hygiene license from New York State in 2002, and after letting her license expire in July 2008, she applied for and received a license to practice in Connecticut in September 2009. In 2011, she started her own temporary employment firm called Experienced Dental Placements out of her condo. ...

"Before entering the condo Thursday evening, police used a bomb-detecting robot to enter Carey's unit, 1C at 114 Woodside Green. Federal agents showed neighbors a photo of the suspect, but did not identify the woman, according to neighbors. Residents of the 212-unit complex were still not being allowed to re-enter their homes as of 9 p.m.

"At one point, two plain-clothes officers escorted a woman into the building and emerged a short time later, the woman carrying a small, white dog."

Washington's WAMU is also following the story. Reporter Matt Laslo posted pictures and tweets as the incident was unfolding.