Members of US Congress spoke with Knesset officials after Capitol ramming attack
WASHINGTON – Several members of the US House Appropriations Committee spoke with Knesset officials last week as Congress seeks to learn about security measures in other countries, Rep. Tim Ryan said Friday.
Ryan, a Democratic member of Congress from Ohio, is the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, which oversees the Capitol Police, the Library of Congress and the Capitol Visitors Centers, among other bodies.
On Friday, a motorist rammed his car into US Capitol police officers and brandished a knife, killing one and wounding another. Police shot and killed the suspect.
“We had a call with the Knesset last week, with [House Appropriations Committee chairwoman] Rosa DeLauro and Jaime Herrera Beutler, the ranking member on our committee, trying to see what do they do in Israel around the Knesset,” Ryan told Fox News after the attack, without specifying with whom the lawmakers spoke.
They wanted to know whether “there is something that we can learn from them,” he said. “There are other capitals around the world that now have a lot more threats over the years than we’ve had, but now we’re maybe in the same boat.”
“We lost a family member today,” Ryan told reporters on Friday. “Someone who showed up at work today to protect the Capitol, protecting people working in the Capitol. We are deeply saddened by his loss.”
The suspect drove into the officers, then hit a barricade and got out of the vehicle, lunging at them with a knife, said Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of the US Capitol Police.
“It is with a very, very heavy heart that I announce one of our officers has succumbed to his injuries,” she said at a news conference.
Police identified the slain officer as William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year veteran of the force and the father of two children. The other officer was in a stable and non-life-threatening condition, the police said.
The suspect was identified
as Noah Green, 25, of Newport News, Virginia, media outlets 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 Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, an antisemitic black nationalist.