An Indiana man drove a vehicle into a security barricade on the Capitol complex, killing one police officer, and injuring another.
NBC reported: “The driver was shot after jumping out of the car with a knife and failing to respond to verbal commands and “lunging” at the officers, Pittman said. The suspect was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead a short time later.”
The officer killed was William Evans, who served the Capitol police for 18 years. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half staff to honor of the officer who was killed in the line of duty.
The condition of the second officer is unknown at this time.
The suspect was identified 25 year old Noah Green from Indiana. Noah had no connection to members of congress and was not on the Capitol Police radar.
Green had recently been living in Virginia, and was unemployed according to his social media, which has since been deleted.
“I am currently now unemployed after I left my job partly due to afflictions, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey,” Green wrote on Facebook.
According to NBC, Green had recently been posting references to the Nation of Islam which is classified as a designated hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on account of racist, antisemitic, and homophobic teachings.
His posts did not make mention if an incoming attack, or motive for targeting the Capitol but they did speak of the “end times” and warned of “last days of our world as we know it.”
Some claim the FBI removed Green’s page, others claim it was Facebook that scrubbed the page. The truth is currently unknown.
Security has been heightened on Capitol grounds.
As of now, the motive remains unknown to investigators, but they do not believe that it was related to terrorism despite his social media posts.