Report: Woman Charged in Traffic Rampage Has 'Significant Psychiatric History'

A Manassas woman charged in a two-state car chase and traffic melee involving gunfire outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda was released from a psychiatric ward days before the incident, the Gazette reports. 

The woman, identified by police as 27-year-old Angela A. Cobbold was released from a mental facility Oct. 19 and apparently had not taken prescribed medicine, The Gazette reported, citing statements made at Cobbold’s Wednesday bond review hearing by Montgomery County Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Feeney.

Cobbold has been charged with first degree assault, according to Montgomery County police.

Feeney said Cobbold had a “significant psychiatric history,” The Gazette reported. A judge ordered a mental health evaluation and set a new bond hearing date for Oct. 31, according to the report.

Virginia State police began pursuing Cobbold when her car was clocked going 93 mph on I-66 around 11:25 a.m. Tuesday, Patch reported.

Maryland state police and Montgomery County officers were on the lookout for Cobbold’s black Mitsubishi when Cobbold made a U-turn into the north gate of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center around 11:50 a.m., Montgomery County police spokesman, Capt. Paul Starks, said.

Starks said Navy security officers noticed her “biting or attempting to eat a bar of soap” in her car before she collided with another vehicle, sped off to the south, made another U-turn and returned to the gate where she was confronted by Navy security personnel.

One Navy security officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries after using a baton to break the driver's side window on Cobbold’s car when the woman refused to exit the vehicle, police said.

A Navy security officer fired his gun and Cobbold fled north, briefly driving the wrong way down Rockville Pike before turning onto Cedar Lane. She was taken into custody when she crashed her car near a construction site in North Bethesda.