A man on Friday stabbed a Capitol police officer to death and injured another after driving his car on them forcing lockdown of the Capitol complex. 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.
The slain officer, William “Billy” Evans, was 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.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden 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 has been named as Noah Green, 25, of Newport News, Virginia. Green’s brother Brendan told the Washington Post that he struggled with drug use and paranoia and his family worried about his mental state.
According to media reports, Green spoke on Facebook about the “end times”, the anti-Christ, and government “mind control”. He also said he was unemployed after leaving his job, “partly due to afflictions,” and praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Facebook said in a statement that it removed the suspect’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram and were in contact with law enforcement.
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.
