A Connecticut woman shot to death by police after she tried to drive through barricades outside the White House held the delusional belief that the president was communicating with her, a federal law enforcement official said Friday.
The official had been briefed on the investigation but spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
A harrowing car chase unfolded Thursday after the driver rammed the barricades, briefly shuttering the chambers where federal lawmakers were debating how to end a government shutdown and stirring fresh panic in a city where a gunman two weeks ago killed 12 people.
The driver, 34-year-old Miriam Carey, of Stamford, Conn., is believed to have traveled directly to Washington immediately before the car chase, the official said. A 1-year-old girl was in the car, though she avoided serious injury and was taken into protective custody.
Investigators have been interviewing Carey's family about her mental condition, which had been deteriorating over the past 10 months, the official said. The woman had made delusional "expressions about the president in the past" and "believed there was some communications to her," and concerns about her mental health were reported in the last year to Stamford police, the official said.
Carey's mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News on Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, in August 2012.
"A few months later, she got sick," she said. "She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized."
Idella Carey said her daughter had "no history of violence," and she didn't know why she was in Washington on Thursday. She said she thought Carey was taking Erica to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut.
Connecticut records show Carey had been a licensed dental hygienist since 2009. Records show the license expired on Thursday.
Dr. Brian Evans, a periodontist in Hamden, Conn., said Carey worked as a hygienist in his office for about two years before she was fired a year ago. He would not go into detail about the reasons surrounding her departure.
"Sometimes it just doesn't work out. There was nothing unusual about her leaving our office," he said.
He said Carey had been away from the job for a period after falling down a staircase and suffering a head injury, and she learned she was pregnant during the time she was hospitalized. He said it was a few weeks after she returned to the office that she was fired.
"We're shocked to know this happened and we feel saddened for her family and all those involved," he said.
Police said there appeared to be no direct link to terrorism, and there was no indication the woman was even armed. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine, whose officers have been working without pay as a result of the shutdown, called it an "isolated, singular matter."
Still, tourists, congressional staff and even some senators watched anxiously as a caravan of law enforcement vehicles chased a black Infiniti with Connecticut license plates down Constitution Avenue outside the Capitol and as officers with high-powered firearms canvassed the area. The House and Senate both abruptly suspended business, a lawmaker's speech cut off in mid-sentence, as the Capitol Police broadcast a message over its emergency radio system telling people to stay in place and move away from the windows.
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