Miriam Carey, 34, of Stamford, was killed by police Thursday after trying to ram her black Infiniti into a White House gate and leading cops on a chase down Pennsylvania Avenue with her 1-year-old daughter in the car. The toddler was uninjured and placed in police custody.
But Carey’s sisters said the woman they knew was not violent. Instead, Miriam Carey was suffering from post-partum depression with psychosis.
“She had no political agenda. She didn’t hate her country. She wasn’t a terrorist,” Amy Carey Jones, a registered nurse, told ABC News. “She was on medication.”
While police did not find weapons in Carey’s car, her sister, Valarie Carey, said Miriam’s illness may have influenced her erratic behavior. But the incident raised questions as to whether police handled the situation appropriately.
“Officers had enough time to assess the occupants of the vehicle,” said Valarie Carey, who is a retired NYPD sergeant. “They actually not only put someone at harm’s way, but they took someone’s life.”
“Mental illness really should have more attention,” Carey Jones added.
Sources told ABC News that Connecticut police had twice in 2012 been called by Miriam Carey’s boyfriend, who reported the woman was delusional, acting irrationally and putting her infant daughter in danger.
On Dec. 10, 2012, police were called to Carey’s home by her boyfriend Eric Francis, 54, father of her baby. Francis told police Carey was emotionally disturbed and he believed his daughter was in danger, according to sources.
Carey told police President Obama had placed Stamford on lockdown and had arranged to have her home electronically monitored and her life broadcast on television, sources said.
Carey believed she was the “prophet of Stamford” and was capable of communicating with Obama, according to sources.
Police handcuffed Carey and remanded her for a mental health evaluation. According to sources, Carey had a family history of schizophrenia and was taking medication for a mental illness.
On Dec. 21, Francis again called police to report his girlfriend was “off her medication” and acting erratically.
In January, the source said, a state social worker met with Carey and Francis.
Francis told the social worker that Carey was “100 percent back to normal.” Carey told the social worker she had been diagnosed with post-partum depression, was on prescription medication, and was receiving treatment, the source said.
ABC News’ Russell Goldman and Mike Levine contributed to this report.
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