Woman crashes car into arena

JACKSON, Miss. -- Federal officials said Sunday that a woman who rammed her car into an arena where President Bush had just given a speech had no intention of harming the president and no federal charges are pending against her, but she could face state charges.\nA friend said the woman, Betina Mixon, may have wanted to hurt herself.\nMixon, 29, of Horn Lake had three children in her car when she crashed into a wall of the DeSoto County Civic Center on Saturday.\nBush had just spoken at a campaign rally for Haley Barbour, the Republican nominee for governor, and was in his limousine preparing to leave, a senior administration official said. The president left the arena less than five minutes later from an exit about 40 yards from the crash.\nAfter interviewing Mixon, investigators determined she had "no direction of interest toward the president whatsoever," Ann Roman, a Secret Service spokeswoman, told The Associated Press on Sunday.\nA federal investigation is ongoing, but "there's no federal charges pending," she said.\nRoman said the woman could face state charges that include aggravated assault. Mixon was taken into the custody of the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department; a call to the department Sunday was not immediately returned.\nAlicia Graves, 19, who said she had known Mixon for about 10 years, said her friend had gone through a lot the last few months.\n"With marriage, her dad just dying and her brother sick and all that, I think she had a nervous breakdown," Graves said Sunday. Mixon, a nurse's aide and the mother of three sons, also had a hysterectomy and "was having a lot of stomach problems," Graves said.\nIt had nothing to do with politics, Graves said. "She's not even registered to vote."\nGraves and federal officials said Mixon was trying to locate her mother-in-law, who was attending the rally.\n"The kids' grandma was there inside, and she said she wanted to get her kids somewhere safe," Graves said. "I think she wanted to try to get her to get the kids so she could go and try to hurt herself."\nGraves said Mixon's children were now staying with relatives.\nWitnesses said they saw a gray Toyota Camry drive through a parking lot on the same side of the DeSoto Civic Center as the president's exit. The car jumped the curb, drove through a gate where press buses had just left and rammed the building near a loading dock.\nPolice rushed the car, dragged out the driver, handcuffed her and whisked her away.\nGraves said authorities wouldn't allow her to visit Mixon in jail.\n"She don't belong in jail," Graves said. "She needs to be put somewhere where she can calm down and be by herself. She was just to the point that she couldn't take it anymore"