A dental hygienist from Connecticut was the female driver who tried to ram her car into a White House barricade and was shot dead near the US Capitol after a high-speed chase through Washington streets Thursday afternoon, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Sources said Miriam Carey, who formerly lived in Brooklyn, was licensed to practice in New York and Connecticut and had a permit to work as a hygienist in Connecticut prisons.
At least a dozen gunshots were fired when she tried to flee cops, who had trapped her two blocks from the Capitol. She was believed to have been hit several times.
A child believed to be a girl about 2 or 3 years old was found unhurt in her black Infiniti sedan, which had Connecticut license plates.
Authorities had no immediate explanation of the woman’s motive. But Capitol Police chief Kim Dine told reporters there was no reason to believe it was an act of terrorism “or anything other than an isolated incident.”
ABC News said the 34-year-old woman had a history of mental health issues. A task force of FBI and Secret Service agents was executing a search warrant at her Connecticut home, CNN said.
The incident began when the woman got into an argument with officers a security barricade outside the White House and crashed her Lexus into the barricade about 2 p.m. witnesses said.
Then she drove up Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol, with at least 20 police and Secret Service cars in hot pursuit.
A witness told the Washington Post that the woman drove up the west side of the Capitol where a police cruiser blocked her path.
Police ordered her to get out of the sedan. But she threw the car in reverse, jumped a curb and hit another cruiser as she fled to the south side of the Capitol, the witness, Frank Schwing, said. Police opened fire as she fled.
Patty Bills, who works at Faith and Action, a Christian outreach group near the shooting scene, said she saw officers firing at the driver. It was not immediately clear whether the driver was armed.
“We heard three, four, five pops,” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa)., who was walking from the Capitol to an office building across the street. Police ordered Casey and nearby tourists to crouch behind a car for protection, then hustled everyone into the Capitol.
One police officer was injured, apparently when his car was struck. .Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said his injuries were not life threatening.
The incident ended at 2nd Street and Constitution Avenue, two blocks from the Capitol and between the US Supreme Court building and the Hart Senate Office Building.
US Capitol Police ordered a lockdown of the complex, telling people in House office buildings to “shelter in place.” President Obama was briefed about the incident at the White House. The lockdown was lifted after 3 p.m.
There was no weapon in the woman’s car and she carried no ID, ABC News reported.