Capitol Hill driver ID'd. Miriam Carey, 34 yo dental hygienist with history of mental health issues

[dkf]

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.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/03/capitol-shooter-was-conn-based-dental-hygienist/

Name confirmed by New Haven Register

http://www.registercitizen.com/general-news/20131003/stamford-woman-killed-in-capitol-shooting

[kestrel91316]

1. Sad, but the police had no way of knowing how much threat she posed.

Just more proof of how badly our mental health system is broken.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Weird...Wonder how she blew a fuse....

[dkf]

3. Maybe she just panicked

[Peregrine Took]

4. Couldn't they just taze her? n/t

[dkf]

6. They shot into her car, then killed her when she stopped and stepped out of the car.

She had no chance once she tried to escape with police around.

[polly7]

10. I'm wondering if she got out of her car to prevent her child from being hurt

by a stray bullet, and think that she probably knew she wouldn't escape. I could be wrong, but regardless, it's a sad, sad thing.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Glad the kid is OK.

Sad.

[dkf]

7. Lucky since there were at least 7 shots fired at the car.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. You can't ram the White House security barricade with your car and expect anything else.

It's sad she had mental problems, but, let's be real.

[dkf]

11. Yeah I am sure that there will be no regrets and agreement that everything went perfectly.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

We have cases in this country where cops shoot 90 year old grannies because they busted down the wrong door to try to arrest a pot smoker. I suspect this is not going to go down as an egregious overuse of police force, unless the usual suspects try to use it as a political football against the POTUS.

[dkf]

14. It's the sad truth.

But I've seen a pic supposedly of her and if correct she's a really cute black girl. The optics are going to be bad.

[Ikonoklast]

16. The threat was stopped, the child is safe.

And you weren't there.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. I don't blame the police. I'm grateful the child is unharmed.

Still sad. I doubt I'm/we're alone.

[CTyankee]

18. You are right. You can't screw around with the capitol hill police.

You're in a national capitol for god's sake. Every threat must be taken seriously and that means deadly force. I wouldn't doubt it for a second.

[jessie04]

9. She didn't have a gun.

They couldn't shoot the tires out ?

They couldn't box her in ?

They couldn't ram her car ?

Sheeeesh.

[dkf]

12. They went to her house with a bomb unit for gads sakes.

I wonder exactly who is paranoid.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

15. James Holmes says hi. nt

[dkf]

17. After he shot up a theater, yes.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

21. Any time a person does something like that, their domicile should be entered with caution

If some gun nut tried to smash through the WH gates, you would agree with that, no?

I have no problem with precautions until we know someone's motive.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

22. So many rampage killers feed offof the noteriety of their predecessors

it's hard to know who will try what. The cops couldn't even rule out whether or not she might have been yet another rampage killer initially.

It's too hard to place blame. All I have is sadness for all the human lives hurt in this story.

[lynne]

19. You need to see the footage -

- as her car was pushed up against what appeared to be steps and the car was stopped. She was surrounded and they asked her to get out of the vehicle. Instead, she threw it in drive, and it appeared she went up on the curb or step and was driving right for the officers. It seemed as though she was intentionally trying to mow them down.

It almost looks like suicide by cop to me.

[jessie04]

23. Reportedly she had some serious mental disturbances.

This shoot first and ask questions later mentality is really troubling.

And if it was suicide by cop, the cops did well.

[Ellipsis]

25. Welcome to Du.... now what the hell are you talking about?