Q: Car shut off suddenly, battery power stayed on, was unable to remove key. Was able to start car briefly before it shut off again.

Today when I started it and began to back out, it suddenly shut off. The power was still on--radio was going, windows worked etc, and all of the dash lights lit up. The key was still in the 'on' position so I tried to turn the car off and take it out, but the key refused to turn from 'accessory' and I wasn't able to. I tried turning it to start it but nothing happened, it just stayed 'on' without the engine running.

I was able to still change gears so I moved it to neutral and pushed it back into the parking spot. I tried a few more times to take the key out but it refused to turn. At this point it had been sitting like that for about 10 minutes and I was able to get the ignition to go and the engine to start, but it ran for only a moment before turning off again. After another few minutes I got it to start long enough to yank the key out!

I started it w/ no problems a couple hours later and let it run for a bit before turning it off. Any ideas on what's wrong? Thank you! -Rose

My car has 184000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.