The woman who sent the police on a wild car chase beginning at White House and ending outside Capitol Hill Thursday has been identified.
The Connecticut woman was 34-year-old Miriam Carey, who had her 1-year-old daughter Erica in the back seat during the chase. According to Carey’s mother, Idella Carey, her daughter had been suffering from post-partum depression since the birth of her daughter in 2012.
“A few months later, she got sick. She was depressed…She was hospitalized,” she said.
Fortunately Carey’s young daughter was taken into protective custody free of injury.
The incident occurred while Congress was in chambers discussing resolutions to end the government shutdown. They were forced into immediate recess as civilians became eyewitnesses to the incident.
Idella Carey claims her daughter had no violent history and believed she was at a doctor’s appointment for Erica in Connecticut Thursday. Instead Miriam Carey was racing through a barricade at the White house and hitting a Secret Service agent with her vehicle before being fatally shot by police near Capitol Hill.
Carey worked as a dental hygienist in the office of Dr. Brian Evans before being fired last year upon her return from a hiatus during which she was hospitalized for a head injury and also found out she was pregnant.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, but there was nothing unusual about her leaving our office,” said Evans. “We’re shocked to know this happened and we feel saddened for her family and all those involved.”
Police officials say there are no apparent links to terrorism.
