U.S. Capitol attack suspect was an average jock whose mental health appeared deteriorating
The U.S. Capitol was attacked on Friday by a man who rammed his car into a security barrier and fatally shot by police when he emerged from the vehicle with a knife.
The man, Noah Green, was a lifelong athelete whose mental health had started to concern his friends and family in recent months. Green, 25, was identified as the suspect in the attack that killed one U.S. Capitol Police officer and injured another, an official brief said.
Green rammed a sedan into a security barrier outside the U.S. Capitol, killing Officer William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year veteran of the U.S. Capitol Police Department.
After the crash he got out of the car with a knife in his hand, ran toward officers and ignored their commands. Officers opened fire and killed him.
Although D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said Green’s attack did not “appear to be terrorism-related”, police are investigating to determine Green’s motive, who not previously considered a threat to lawmakers.
While people who went to school and played sports with Green describe him as an average jock, Green’s recent social media activity offers clues to his change in personality.
Noting his growing support for the Islamic Nation, an anti-Semitic extremist group, and leader Louis Farrakhan, The Southern Poverty Law Center or the SPLC says it has a “theology of innate Black superiority over whites” and a belief system that is “consistently rejected by mainstream Muslims.”
Green was born in West Virginia and graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2019, where he played football as a defensive back.
