Car chase on Capitol Hill leads to fatal result

Just days following the government shutdown, a woman and her child were driving just outside the White House on Capitol Hill when the woman suddenly decided to ram her way through a White House checkpoint. One officer tried to stop her by holding a little metal barricade as she was speeding through the area. However, the woman wouldn’t yield to the barricade and the officer flipped on top of the hood of the car before rolling off onto the pavement. The woman, later identified as Miriam Carey, continued speeding on Pennsylvania Avenue, reaching speeds up to 80 miles per hour and driving through red lights along the way. Soon after, Ms. Carey was finally cornered, but as the surrounding officers drew their weapons, Ms. Carey hit the gas in reverse and struck a police car before racing up Constitution Avenue. She eventually crashed into a barrier on a corner. Ms. Carey struggled to get out of her car, but as soon as she exited the vehicle, law enforcement officers started firing their weapons. It turns out that the woman was not armed herself and aside from using her vehicle as a weapon, which has now been all but totaled, she did not appear to present an immediate danger. She was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The strange event follows Ms. Carey’s relatively normal and non-violent past. Ms. Carey was a dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut. Her friends and family who all recently spoke to her reported to officials that she seemed fine to them at the time. A former boss of hers confirmed that she had a temper when she was confronted about certain situations. Still, the whole event will be remembered as an anomaly as the rest of Capitol Hill looks to forget about the bizarre situation and focus on more pressing matters going forward.