Miss. driver's breach of security doesn't reach Bush

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. - A woman said to have "snapped" from stress drove her car with three children inside past a police checkpoint Saturday and rammed it into an arena where President Bush had given a speech. Bush was unharmed and authorities said later she had never intended to hurt the president.

Bush was in his limousine ready to leave the building, a senior administration official said. He left the arena less than five minutes later from an exit about 40 yards from the car. About 9,000 people were inside to hear the president speak.

Although the incident ended peacefully, the possibility that the vehicle could have contained explosives made it a serious breach of security and raised questions about the failure of authorities to head off the vehicle.

Authorities swarmed the car with weapons drawn and took away the driver and her children. Secret Service and local law enforcement investigators concluded after interviewing her that she had no intention of harming the president, said Ann Roman, a Secret Service spokeswoman.

"Essentially, she was trying to locate her mother-in-law, who was attending the president's speech," said William Jenkins, the FBI's acting special agent in charge in Jackson.

The woman, who was not carrying any weapon, was arrested for trespassing and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, Roman said in Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press reports, quoting an unnamed official, that the driver was Betina Mixon, 29, of Horn Lake.

Mixon, a nurse's aide and the mother of three sons, had been under stress recently because of marital problems and a hysterectomy, said her friend Amy Graves, of Walls.

"She just snapped," Graves told the DeSoto Times for its online edition Saturday.

- Information from the Los Angeles Times was added to this report.

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