STAMFORD, Connecticut – Miriam Carey, 34, crashed through barriers in The Capitol, resulting in a high-speed chase through Washington’s high-security Governmental district. Despite being unarmed – and the fact that her 18 month-old daughter was in the back of the car – she was subsequently cornered and killed by security forces.
Miriam Carey
Carey had driven 270 miles from her home in Stamford, Washington D.C. to reach the political heartland of the U.S.A. and reports suggest that she had been suffering from postpartum depression. She had finished college and had been working as a dental hygenist since 2008. Whilst receiving treatment for a head trauma after a fall down a flight of stairs in April 2012 Carey discovered that she was pregnant. It was at around that time that friends and family members started to notice changes in her emotional stability. In December of the same year she had told police that she was a prophet, and that President Obama had her under surveillance and was intending to place Stamford under ‘lockdown’.
Carey was sued by her condominium association for failing to pay fees since August 2010; a lawsuit settled in February 2013 concluded that she owed $1,759, as well as collection costs. However it remains unclear which events, specifically, led to the events of Thursday afternoon, when she was supposed to be bringing her daughter to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut.
After arriving at The Capitol, Carey smashed through a security barrier, injuring an officer in the process. Security personnel were closing in on the vehicle when it suddenly reversed, span through 180 degrees and sped off. Speeds of up to 80mph were reached in the subsequent car-chase down Pennsylvania Avenue, where Carey eventually lost control and crashed at Second Street NE. Surrounded a second time by Secret Service and Capitol Police officers, she was shot numerous times and killed. Despite over 15 bullets entering the vehicle, her infant daughter, Erica Carey, was unharmed and is now in the care of social services.
Capitol Hill
The episode prompted a lockdown of The Capitol and came just two weeks after the Washington Navy Yard Shooting, when Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and injured dozens more. Carey’s apartment was searched by over 100 law enforcement personnel on Thursday night, including a bomb squad and also a robot used to make the initial entry into the building. Stamford Police Chief Jonathan Fontneau was quoted as saying “nothing out of the ordinary” was found and that it was simply a “typical first-floor two-bedroom apartment,” resulting in further unanswered questions as to Thursday's events.
Amy Carey, Miriam Carey’s sister, was deeply saddened by what happened, and dumbfounded that her sister could be responsible. “That’s impossible” she said, “She couldn’t be in D.C. She was just in Connecticut two days ago – I spoke to her.”
