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WASHINGTON. — US investigators were trying to figure out what led a woman with a toddler in her car to ram into a White House barrier before leading police on a high-speed chase which ended with her being shot dead.Lawmakers and tourists scattered and ducked for cover on Thursday as shots rang out during a police operation to halt the woman, who was driving with a one-year-old girl in her black sports car.

Washington police chief Cathy Lanier told reporters the suspect had been pronounced dead, but refused to discuss the driver’s possible motive while the investigation was on-going.

“The child is approximately a year old, and is in good condition, and in protective custody,” Lanier said, adding that officers had fired shots at two locations as they tried to halt the vehicle.

A police statement said the car had Connecticut tags. It did not identify the driver. Two TV stations — CBS and ABC — and the Washington Post newspaper identified her as Miriam Carey, from the city of Stamford. ABC said she was a 34-year-old dental hygienist suffered from post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter.

“She had post-partum depression after having the baby” last August, said the woman’s mother, Idella Carey, ABC reported.
“A few months later, she got sick. She was depressed . . . She was hospitalised,” the mother told ABC.

Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said the motorist was a “black adult female” but that her identity was being withheld until her next of kin could be notified. He also said the young girl was unharmed.

Officials said the chase began at the outer perimeter of the White House security cordon, where the suspect’s car struck a barrier and a uniformed Secret Service officer. — AFP.