Capitol Hill: Police kill woman after car chase

A man runs for cover as a police officer takes a shooting position on Capitol Hill. Picture: Getty

A WOMAN driver was shot and killed by US police after trying to ram through a White House barricade with a young child in the car.

Police gave chase toward the Capitol, in Washington DC, where officers opened fire on the black car.

Tourists watched the drama unfold as politicians inside the building debated how to end a government shutdown. Police quickly locked down the entire complex temporarily, and both houses of Congress went into recess.

Michael McCaul, a Republican who said he was briefed by the Homeland Security Department, said the woman was killed. Asked if she was armed, he replied: “I don’t think she was. There was no return fire.”

Police described it as an isolated event and saw no indications of terrorism.

The chase began when a car with Connecticut plates sped onto the driveway leading to the White House, over a set of lowered barricades. When she couldn’t get through a second barrier, she spun the car in the opposite direction, flipping a Secret Service officer over the bonnet of the car as she sped away.

A fleet of police and Secret Service cars chased the car toward Capitol Hill.

“The car was trying to get away. But it was going over the median and over the curb,” said Matthew Coursen, who was on his way to the Capitol when the car sped by him.

“The car got boxed in and that’s when I saw an officer of some kind draw his weapon and fire shots into the car.”

The Senate’s top security officer Terrance Gainer said a child was taken from the car to a hospital, but said he believed the youngster was unharmed in the incident.