Small furry animal. His reaction today, friday, october 4th, 2013. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie. Live from studio 1a in Rockefeller Plaza. And good morning. Welcome to today on a friday morning. Im Savannah Guthrie. Im willie geist along with al roker and Natalie Morales. Matt has the morning off. Al has a busy morning, Severe Weather across the country and a lot of people asking why would the woman killed outside the capitol do what she did yesterday. A lot of questions being asked. Thats the top story this morning. The investigation into what caused a woman to ram a barrier and speed off toward the capitol before being killed by police in front of hundreds of bystanders and tourists and her little girl. Pete williams is on capitol hill with new details on the investigation. Pete, good morning to you. Savannah, good morning. Police say the woman at the center of all of this was well knife known in connecticut with a history of Mental Illness. They discovered indications that she believed she was being stalked by president obama. Reporter police and federal agents began their search for answers at the stamford, connecticut home of the woman driving the car. 34yearold miriam carey, a dental hygienist. She drove into a security barrier at the white house and then took off after striking a secret Service Officer with her car. There was a guy in front of her that did stop it and she hit him and he flew over the hood. Reporter from there she sped up pennsylvania avenue toward the u. S. Capitol about a mile and a half away doing 80 Miles Per Hour at one point. Police and secret Service Officers stopped her car at the foot of the capitol but she jammed it into reverse and took off again as they opened fire. She again led them on a chase around the perimeter of the grounds. Police put the capitol on lock down and rushed to get visitors safely away as the chaos swirls around them. I hear boom, boom, boom as the gunfire is unloaded. Reporter a few minutes later carey crashed her car outside the u. S. Capitol center. She died a short time later. A u. S. Capitol Police Officer was hurt as he was speeding to confront her and hit a barrier in the street. Afterward they discovered her very young daughter was in the car. There was a 1yearold child in the car. One of our officers initially rescued the child and took the child to medical care in the vicinity here. Reporter police and members of congress defended the use of deadly force given she ignored repeated commands to stop. She had delusions. There was some sort of Mental Health issue. All of the Police Officers and secret Service Officers who responded were exempt from the Government Shutdown and required to be on duty, including the two that were injured but because of the shutdown, theyre not being paid. Pete, before i let you go, do you know the whereabouts or the condition of the little girl that was in the car . She was taken to, initially, some medical Treatment Center here and then to a local hospital and examined. They say she was not injured and now she is in social Service Protection and i assume at some point will go back to the family. Pete williams at the capitol this morning. Thank you. Were joined now by two eyewitnesses of the chase. Jennifer and tim arnold. You both from louisville, kentucky. Good morning to you. Good morning. Thank you. So much was shutdown. You went to the capitol. The one place that was open. What did you see . What did you hear . Jennifer, ill start with you. We just gotten off the pedicab and we were paying the gentleman and thats when we saw the black car speeding down pennsylvania avenue and the chase. Shortly thereafter we heard the gunfire and could smell the smoke from it. And tim, you had your two little girls with you. Did you immediately just by instinct, go to the ground or did you hear Police Telling people to get down . Well, when i heard the gunshots i knew what it was, obviously, its pretty distinct and i said get on the ground. Get on the ground and they jumped over a barrier that was there and got in the bushes and i got down on the stairs there. We see a picture of you actually once you were down trying to capture it on your camera. Did you capture anything . You know, i caught the aftermath. You know, funny thing was i had my camera out on the pedicab and i put it away just seconds before all of this happened. Well, jennifer, it must have been absolutely terrifying, especially because you had your two little ones with you. Absolutely. They were crying and shaking and we didnt know if there was a shooter. The police did the shooting. But at some point we were told to get up and run south by various agents. They were about two blocks ahead of us and i was calling my daughter on her cell phone to make sure she had her little sister and we finally did get reunited. Were so glad it turned out okay for you jennifer and tim arnold and sorry your trip to washington didnt turn out too well this week. We wish our best to you. Thank you. As Pete Williams reported a moment ago, federal agents searched the connecticut home of the woman killed outside the capitol. Katy tur is in stamford with more on what were learning about her this morning. Will willie, good morning. There are still some police here, but the major presence is gone. This after 16 hours where this entire area was taped off. One of the buildings was on complete lockdown as federal investigators were inside Miriam Careys apartment trying to figure out what was going on with the mother of a 1yearold girl. Reporter this sprawling 200 unit apartment complex in stamford, connecticut became the focus of a federal investigation. At about 3 30 thursday afternoon 50 residents were evacuated as the fbis bomb squad and hazmat teams descended on miriam car careys home but as of 11 00 p. M. , they still hadnt entered the apartment waiting on a search warrant from d. C. It was the fbi bomb squad, you have ten minutes to get yourself and get out because you probably wont be able to get in for the next nine hours. Reporter neighbors, many that say they didnt know her well describe the mother as normal. Someone youd see in the laundry room. Employed for a year as a dental hygienist. Her former boss said she was an average employee but notice she seemed increasingly stressed over what he calls her unplanned pregnancy. We had a lot of complaints about her from her patients. That shes a dental hygienist and rough. We needed to make a change and let her go. Reporter relatives say carey fell a few years ago and began to suffer mental problems. Other relatives also described postpartum depression after her baby girl was born. According to Law Enforcement sources, some of the relatives live in brooklyn. Careys sister is a retired nypd sergeant. Were told her relatives are cooperating with investigators. They expect to release a statement sometime later today. Katy, thanks. She mentioned a 1yearold involved in all of this. Well talk about the possibility that postpartum depression may have played a role in the case. Thats in the next half hour. A busy day in the weather. Several storm systems youre tracking this morning. Thats right. Four big storms to talk about. Its crazy out here. In our todays top weather, we have winter storm, Tropical Storm karen, Severe Weather in the midwest and crazy heat in the east with santa ana winds in the west. Well go to wyoming where mike seidel has been in the middle of all of this. In casper, they had 10 inches of snow. They usually get 7. 5 in october. They had five last week. It does snow this early in the season. They have plowed and treated the roads. The boulevard is in good shape, but you have to slow down because it is snowing at a good clip. The temperatures are staying below freezing all day long. The Emergency Management office has issued a code red because of the risk of power outages. Trees down on power lines. A heavy and wet snow will cause more power outages. Part of i90 and i25 are shutdown because of wind and winddriven snow. The snow wraps up tonight. Sunshine and back to 60 on monday. Thank you. We are covering Tropical Storm karen. You can see in pensacola, florida, not much going on. We have good news about karen. It is starting to weaken. Lets go back to the big winter storm out west as we go back to the maps and the weather computer. We can show you we are looking at the storm system getting itself together and pushing east. It will intensify. The heavy snow banked around the black hills. Ahead of the system, we will look at Severe Weather. As far as today is concerned, we have winter storm watches and winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings from casper to alliance. Snowfall amounts from 18 to 24 inches of snow right around the black hills. We are also talking about karen. The good news is karen is starting to weaken. We are getting dry air thats being pulled in to karen. What that means is it is 295 miles south of the mouth of the mississippi, 60mileanhour winds and moving northwest at 10. It will move toward the coast and we will see some weakening. Right now, we dont see it becoming a hurricane. That is going to be good news. We will continue to track that. We have two other stories. The crazy heat and Severe Weather in the midwest. Guys . You are busy this morning. It is hot in washington and there is the Government Shutdown. Lots to report on that. The president is saying he will stay in washington instead of traveling to asia next week. President obama canceled the trip because of the partial shutdown that furloughed 800,000 federal workers. We have Nbcs Chuck Todd with the latest this morning. Good morning, natalie. Third time in three years that caused the president to cancel the trip to indonesia. When indonesia is on the itinerary, expect the president to cancel. He did not want to be out of the country while the government is shutdown. Using Government Resources overseas is not a smart move political. Never mind House Republicans are meeting today, perhaps they will come up with a new strategy or tactics to try to end this now or focus on what to do with the debt ceiling. We will see yesterday after the shooting and after prayers were said and congratulations to the Capitol Police were said, both Political Parties went back to the critique and strategies. It looks like today, day four of the shutdown with no end in sight. We will see. Thank you, chuck todd. This sunday on meet the press jack lew and savannah is filling in for david gregory. A jam packed sunday on meet the press. We are getting a look at dash cam video of Police Shootout on the oregon highway. The august incident left the father of three dead and the officer injured. This video is disturbing. We have nbcs Miguel Almaguer with the story. Reporter it started as a routine traffic stop in oregon, but in seconds sir, get back in the car for me. Reporter the exchange became deadly. Investigators say john allen ii opened fire on the state trooper for no apparent reason. Sir there were words exchanged on the side of the freeway. It happened very quickly. Reporter dressed in fatigues, said to be in the army, allen appears to empty his clip. The state trooper, who survived, was amazingly just shot once. Allen took a bullet to the chest, but stayed on his feet. 5326, shots fired. I have been hit in the side. Im okay. Suspect left. Reporter allen was found slumped over his car a half mile away. Also in the vehicle, allens children, 10, 13 and 15, who were not injured. It is upsetting because he was trying to take his children on a road trip. Reporter the case in the dramatic shooting is now closed, but what triggered the gunman may never been known. For today, Miguel Almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. We have Mary Thompson with the latest on the news. Twitter is yet to turn a profit, but it has over 200 million users who send over 500 million tweets a day. The longer you wait, you have to wait longer for thanksgiving reservations. You will pay an extra 5 a day. If you wait until the end of the m month, budget an an extra 140 for the reservation. Back to you. Mary thompson, thanks so much. Things got a little squirrely at a golf event in ohio on thursday as the competition was winding down at the president s cup. Lindsey vonn borrowed a squirrel from davis love iii. She put the critter on the back of tiger woods shoulder. He did not seem too amused. He wasnt playing clearly. He did not look too happy. Later, tiger looked more relaxed as the squirrel hung out there right on his shoulder. Became a little friendly with the squirrel. Al as a series of questions. What are you doing with a spare squirrel . Borrowed the squirrel . The squirrel became friendly with davis love iii during a rain delay . Maybe he will repay her on the ski slopes. Payback. Okay. Totally bizarre. Al, lets get the check of the forecast. We have Severe Weather and some of the weather is very severe in the midwest. We are talking tornadoes. You can see from omaha to des moines up into minneapolis, the activity firing up. In fact, we have winter i should say tornado watches going up later today. In the meantime, we have a strong risk of storms in central iowa, minneapolis and oklahoma city. This extends into tomorrow where we will be looking at more of the same kind of weather in chicago and st. Louis and indianapolis and paducah. We are talking about the crazy heat that is happening later today in the east in texas. We will cover that coming up in the next 30 minutes. In fact, in the next 30 seconds, we will have your local forecast. U didnt know that posting your travel plans online may attract burglars . [woman] off to hawaii what if you didnt know that as the price of gold rises, so should the coverage on your jewelry . [prospector] ahh what if you didnt know that kitty litter can help you out of a slippery situation . The more you know, the better you can plan for whats ahead. Talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance. We are farmers bum pa dum, bum bum bum bum. A friday morning, good morning. I want to show you this live picture of San Francisco. You can see a little bit of a smoke layer off in the distance. There is a fire burning near Lake Berryessa up in napa county. Keep that in mind if you are smelling the smoke. That could be it if you see a wild fire break out on the side of the road report it. 83 in fremont for today. Red flag warning expires tomorrow morning. And thats your latest weather. All right, al, thanks a lot. Lets see what carson is doing in the orange room. Any squirrels over there . No squirrels here. Sorry to say. Happy friday everybody. The big stories are the shooting on the hill yesterday and day four of the Government Shutdown. It seemed to be everywhere yesterday and was how bizarre the events were. It was taken by a photographer for the new york times. Doug mills. This was everywhere. This capitol hill worker either walking by checking his email while the events are going on or using his phone to get the latest information maybe on where to go to get to safety. People online were talking about it. Ed wrote, this is d. C. In a nut shell. Dear congress is still out there for you to write. Day four of the shutdown. When we showed you day one of the shutdown. This lets you know by the size of the words how much these words were being tweeted. Larger themes, paycheck, government, employee, compromise was big. As the compromise has gone on people are starting to pass blame. Theres boehner, theres obama and compromise down here is even smaller. Were continuing to track that. Keep your thoughts coming into Dear Congress and well have more later in the show. Thank you so much. Coming up, more on the frantic scene in washington and the possible connection some are talking about to postpartum depression. Could that have something to do with it . And oh, gosh. This is it. Elizabeth smart takes Meredith Vieira to the place she was held during her kidnapping ordeal and reveals details about what happened and her strategy to survive. Well sit down with meredith but first, this is today on nbc. E. Well sit down with meredith but first, this is today on nbc. Coming up, where do you go after quitting your job with a little dance routine . The orange room, of course. Little dance routine . The [ lane ] do you ever feel like youre growing old waiting for your wrinkle cream to work . Clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. It targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available. Youll see younger looking skin in just one week. One week . Thats just my speed. Rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots rapid tone repair. From neutrogena®. Im watching you. Youre knocking me out tonight. Tonight. Oooooooo. My turn daddy, my turn hold it steady now. I know daddy. [ dad ] oh boy, fasten your seatbelts everybody. [ mixer whirring ] bounty selectasize. Its the smaller powerful sheet, that acts like a big sheet. Look one selectasize sheet of bounty is 50 more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. [ humming ] [ dad ] use less with the small but powerful picker upper. Bounty selectasize. And try bounty napkins. You really love, what would you do . [ woman ] id be a writer. [ man ] id be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] id be an architect. What if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you . When you think about it, isnt that what retirement should be, paying o