The man who rammed his car into a security barrier at the US Capitol on Friday and killed a cop before being fatally shot by police has been identified as Noah Green, who was a Nation of Islam devotee from Indiana, according to reports and his social media account. The 25-year-old, who had been living in Virginia, described himself as a "Follower of Farrakhan" on his Facebook page, in reference to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Those who knew Green described him as quiet, athletic and non-violent but also said that they were concerned about the recent changes in his behavior. Green allegedly slammed his sedan into two police officers near the Capitol's North Barricade, the entrance where congress members and their aides come and go.
Motive Unknown
Green, on Friday, attacked and killed US Capitol Police Officer William "Billy" Evans and injured another officer, who was still hospitalized Friday evening in stable condition. Evans was an 18-year veteran of the department. Moments after the crash, Green got out of the car with a knife in his hand, ran toward other officers and ignored their commands. Officers opened fire and killed him.
DC 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. Contee said Green was not known to either DC Police or the USCP and was not previously considered a threat to lawmakers.
Instead he had a troubled life, at least lately.
Complicated Life
According to a report in the New York Post after reviewing his Facebook page, Green seemed to have come on hard before his account was taken down. "I was on the right track and everything I had planned was coming into existence. It required long hours, lots of studying, and exercise to keep me balanced while experiencing an array of concerning symptoms along the path (I believe to be side effects of drugs I was intaking unknowingly)," he wrote on March 17, signing the message Brother Noah X.
"However, the path has been thwarted, as Allah (God) has chosen me for other things. Throughout life I have set goals, attained them, set higher ones, and then been required to sacrifice those things," he continued.
He credited the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, with saving him "after the terrible afflictions I have suffered presumably by the CIA and FBI, government agencies of the United States of America."
Star Footballer Gets Confused in Life
That said, neither police, nor his friends believe that Friday's incident was a terror attack. Green was born in Fairlea, West Virginia - a poor, largely white, rural community of 1,700 people in the southeast of the state, close to the border with Virginia. One of 10 children and grew up with seven sisters and two brothers.
Greene attended Alleghany High School where he played football and ran track, earning All-District, All-Conference, and team MVP honors in 2013. While in high school, he shifted to Virginia and was living 30 miles from Fairlea in Covington, Virginia.
He graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2019, where he played football as a defensive back, a spokesman for the school in Newport News, Virginia. But his life changed over the next two years that made him paranoid. He would also suffer from suicidal depression, and ultimately his life came crashing down.
According to a USA Today report, people who went to school with Green and played sports with him growing up described him as the average guy: athletic, popular, even working at a gym in college. Andre Toran, who was a captain on the football team at the time, told the outlet that Green was a "really quiet guy" who would crack jokes every once in a while but usually just smiled instead of chiming in on conversations.
"I know people say this all the time, but the guy who I played with is not the same person who did this," said Toran told the outlet.
Facebook posts, which have since been taken down, showed a deeply disturbed man spiraling out of control - believing that he was the victim of federal "mind control", having suicidal thoughts and manic episodes, traveling to Africa to seek solace, and finding comfort in religion and extremist ideology. "Satan's rule over us is up," he said, in a Facebook post on March 17.
On Instagram, he wrote: "I have suffered multiple home break ins, food poisonings, assaults, unauthorized operations in the hospital, mind control." Green believed that his troubles began in 2019, when, he thought, a former teammate and roommate drugged him with Xanax and then framed him with a false story.
The night before the attack, he was severly ill, his brother Brendan told The Washington Post, without detailing exactly what happened. He texted Brendan on Thursday night and said: "I'm sorry but I'm just going to go and live and be homeless. Thank you for everything that you've done. I looked up to you when I was a kid. You inspired me a lot," that pretty well sums up Green's life and that he wanted to end it to be free forever.
