Law enforcement authorities identified Miriam Carey, 34, as the woman who, with a 1-year-old child in her car, led Secret Service officers and police on a harrowing chase Thursday from the White House past the Capitol, attempting to penetrate the security barriers at both national landmarks before being shot to death, police said. "It's the furthest thing from anything I would think she would do, especially with her child in the car. Kevin Morano said he lives two doors down from the suspect and said he only knew that Carey was a dental hygienist and that she drove fast in a black Infiniti and a white BMW. "The people here seem very nice, but there are some weird people here." “But that was the most negative thing you could say about her.” 
 
 Carey also was a good driver with a good sense of direction, Windley said. A state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection response truck arrived at the scene around 8:30 p.m. 
 
 Investigators are piecing together any clues that would indicate why someone who appeared successful would strap her young daughter into a car seat in the back of a luxury car, drive to the nation's Capitol, which is in the midst of a government shutdown, and act so erratically.
– Those who knew Miriam Carey, the reported driver of the black Infiniti at the center of yesterday's DC chase, are struggling to believe the news. "That’s impossible. She works, she holds a job," sister Amy Carey tells the Washington Post. "She wouldn’t be in DC. She was just in Connecticut two days ago," though she does have a black car, Amy says. But Carey's mom, Idella, tells ABC News her daughter was suffering from post-partum depression. Miriam gave birth to her daughter last August, Idella Carey says, and "a few months later, she got sick. She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized." (Police confirmed a 1-year-old girl was in the car with Carey when she was killed.) A former classmate says Miriam Carey "was really just a sweet and nurturing person," and a college friend says Carey was "always very professional" and "very focused." She didn't discuss politics, and wasn't one to lose her temper. But DC police chief Cathy Lanier says the situation yesterday didn't seem to be an accident. The Connecticut Post notes that Carey had no criminal record. Now her neighborhood in Stamford, Conn., is flooded with officials: "A full investigation is underway by federal authorities," says the city's mayor. A few more details have emerged: Carey—or someone with the same name—got a BA in health and nutrition from Brooklyn College in 2007. She also had an associate degree in dental hygiene from the Bronx's Hostos Community College. She moved to Stamford in 2009 after living in Brooklyn, close to her family, for years. In 2002, she gained a dental hygiene license from New York state; in 2009, she got one from Connecticut. She ran a temping business out of her Connecticut condo called Experienced Dental Placements. Her condo association sued her last year for unknown reasons, but the suit was dropped. BuzzFeed has an account of what's known so far, with photos.