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High speed chase and shooting in Washington D.C. leaves one dead

A female motorist crashed into white house barricades before engaging in a high speed chase, resulting in her death.
The White House webpage

Thursday, a female motorist in a black Infiniti sedan was killed by police after leading them on a high-speed chase through nation’s capitol.

The car, driven by Miriam Carey and carrying a one year old child in the back seat, crashed into White House barricades and struck a police officer before a lengthy pursuit.

"Somebody was driving near the white house, tried to crash through one of the barriers, did not, and then turned the car and was chased down Constitution Avenue all the way past the capitol and somehow crashed there about 8 blocks from my house and just outside the capitol building," said Thomas Burr, a senior Salt Lake Tribune correspondent in Washington D.C. "There is no active shooter right now, but there was somehow 10 to 15 shots fired on Capitol Hill just a block or two from the capitol.”

It is not speculated the event was an accident.

Because of the ongoing government shutdown, police officers serving on Capitol Hill and aiding in the situation are currently on duty without pay.

"They’re guarding our lives and the members of congress’s lives, but right now they are working in a job and just hoping by the next payday that congress has figured this out otherwise they go without," Burr said. "They are forced to, like many essential federal workers, show up without any guarantee that they’re going to get paid anytime soon.”

The police officer injured in the incident was airlifted to a hospital and the one-year-old child is currently in protective custody.