According to his now-deleted Facebook profile, the attacker was a follower of the antisemitic, black nationalist Nation of Islam and a “devotee of Louis Farrakhan.”
A motorist rammed a car into US Capitol police on Friday and brandished a knife, killing one officer and injuring another and forcing the Capitol complex to lockdown in an attack that police said did not appear to be terrorism-related.
Police shot and killed the suspect.
Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of the US Capitol Police, said the suspect drove into the officers, then hit a barricade and got out of the vehicle, lunging at them with a knife.
“It is with a very, very heavy heart that I announce one of our officers has succumbed to his injuries,” she told a news conference, her voice choked with emotion.
Police identified the slain officer as William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year veteran of the force and father of two children. Officials said the other officer was in a stable and non-life threatening condition.
“It does not appear to be terrorism-related but obviously we’ll continue to investigate,” said Robert Contee, acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington.
President Joe Biden said he was heartbroken by the attack and ordered flags at the White House be lowered to half-staff. In a statement, he said he was being briefed on the investigation.
The suspect was named as Noah Green, 25, of Newport News, Virginia, multiple media organizations reported, citing police.
Green spoke on Facebook about the “end times,” the anti-Christ and government “mind control,” according to the reports. He also said he was unemployed after leaving his job, “partly due to afflictions,” and praised the anti-Semitic black nationalist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan has a long history of promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories such as Jewish and Israeli involvement in the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, claiming that Jews controlled the trans-Atlantic slave trade and calling Judaism a “gutter religion.”
Farrakhan had previously compared Jews to termites on social media.
In screenshots obtained by multiple sources, Green could be seen calling himself “Noah X” in the style of Malcolm X.
“My faith is one of the only things that has been able to carry me through these times and my faith is centered on the belief of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as Jesus, the Messiah, the final divine reminder in our midst,” Green wrote in a Facebook post obtained by the Stop Anti-Semitism movement. “I consider him my spiritual father.”
Law enforcement officials confirmed that on Facebook, Green had posted speeches and articles written by Farrakhan and Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 to 1975, that discussed the decline of America.
In December 2020, he petitioned to change his name to Noah Zaeem Muhammad but failed to appear at his hearing in Indianapolis last Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
Facebook said in a statement that it removed the suspect’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram and were in contact with law enforcement.
Brendan Green told The Washington Post his brother had been violently ill on Thursday evening at the Virginia apartment they shared, and later sent him a text message saying that he planned to become homeless.
Police said the suspect was not known to them, and they had yet to determine what motivated him.
“Clearly this was someone who was actively trying to just get at whoever or whatever – we just don’t know right now,” Contee said. “Whether the attack was at law enforcement, or whoever, we have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it and we’ll do that.”
Dozens of police cars, marked and unmarked, raced toward the iconic domed white building, in an unwelcome reminder of January 6, when thousands of supporters of then-president Donald Trump overran the complex.
It was the worst security threat at the Capitol since that day, when scores of Capitol police were wounded, one was killed and two others later committed suicide.
US spy agencies warned in mid-March of an ongoing threat that racially motivated violent extremists would carry out mass-casualty attacks on civilians while militia groups would target police and government personnel and buildings.
Roads leading to the complex were blocked by police cars or officers and people inside the Capitol were told to stay away from windows for much of the afternoon before police announced that the lockdown had been lifted.
There were few people at the Capitol. Members of Congress were not in Washington on Friday, with both the Senate and House of Representatives on Easter recess.
Dozens of National Guard troops, who have been stationed at the Capitol since the January attack, quickly deployed. Heavily armed and in riot gear, they jogged in columns to stand in rows at the scene and around the complex.
Authorities have begun only in the past couple of weeks to remove the outer ring of high, razor-wire-topped fencing erected around the sprawling Capitol complex in the aftermath of the January 6 rampage. Many of the thousands of National Guard troops posted at the building in January have also been sent home.
Lawmakers have been arguing about how much security should remain on Capitol Hill, which is a popular park for city residents as well as the seat of government. Members of Congress from both political parties have introduced legislation to make it illegal to erect permanent fencing around the building.
The January 6 assault took place while the House of Representatives and Senate, with the Senate presided over by then-vice president Mike Pence, was certifying Biden’s November election victory over the Republican Trump.
(JNS).