Suspect in Capitol attack suffered delusions
Man with pole trashes Asian-owned convenience store
WASHINGTON, April 4, (AP): The man who rammed a car into two officers at a barricade outside the US Capitol, killing one of them before he was shot to death by police, had been suffering from delusions, paranoia and suicidal thoughts, a US official told The Associated Press. Investigators believe it was an isolated incident from a disturbed young man.
Video of the Friday afternoon attack shows the driver emerging from the crashed car with a knife in his hand and starting to run at the pair of officers, Capitol Police acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told reporters. Police shot the suspect, 25-year-old Noah Green, who died at a hospital.
Investigators are increasingly focused on Green’s mental health as they work to identify any motive for the attack, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on Saturday on condition of anonymity. The official said investigators had talked to Green’s family, who spoke of his increasingly delusional thoughts.
In online posts since removed, Green described being under government thought control and said he was being watched. He described himself as a follower of the Nation of Islam and its longtime leader, Louis Farrakhan, and spoke of going through a difficult time when he leaned on his faith. Some of the messages were captured by the group SITE, which tracks online activity.
“To be honest these past few years have been tough, and these past few months have been tougher,” he wrote in late March. “I have been tried with some of the biggest, unimaginable tests in my life. I am currently now unemployed after I left my job partly due to afflictions, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey.”
It was the second line-of-duty death this year for the US Capitol Police, still struggling to heal from the Jan. 6 insurrection. The attack underscored that the building and campus - and the officers charged with protecting them - remain potential targets for violence.
Authorities installed a giant fence around the Capitol perimeter and for months restricted traffic along the roads closest to the building, but they had begun pulling back some of the emergency measures. And the most recent incident could delay the gradual reopening of the building’s grounds to the public.
“I just ask that the public continue to keep US Capitol Police and their families in your prayers,” Pittman said. “This has been an extremely difficult time for US Capitol Police after the events of Jan. 6 and now the events that have occurred here today.
Police identified the slain officer as William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year veteran who was a member of the department’s first responders unit.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed Evans as a “martyr for our democracy,” while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “heartbroken.” Pelosi and Schumer both spoke Friday with members of Evans’ family.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he and his wife were heartbroken to learn of the attack and expressed condolences to Evans’ family. He directed flags at the White House to be lowered to halfstaff.
In 2013, officers with the Capitol Police and Secret Service fatally shot a woman inside her car after she led them on a highspeed chase that began outside the White House. Miriam Carey’s family said she suffered from postpartum depression with psychosis but was not dangerous.
Friday’s crash and shooting happened at a security checkpoint near the Capitol typically used by senators and staff on weekdays, though most were away from the building for the current recess. The attack occurred about 100 yards (meters) from the entrance of the building on the Senate side of the Capitol.
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NEW YORK: An Asian-owned convenience store in Charlotte, North Carolina, was trashed by a man who wielded a metal post and yelled racial slurs, according to police and a son of the store’s owners.
Surveillance footage shows a man pulling a merchandise rack to the floor and swinging a street sign post into the glass of the refrigerators. A man who appears to a friend of the attacker cheers him on.
The attack occurred Tuesday at a store called Plaza Sundries that is downtown near Charlotte’s main transit hub. And it falls in the wake of an attack on a woman of Asian descent in New York City and the fatal shooting of eight people at three Atlanta-area massage businesses. Six of those victims were women of Asian descent.
Despite the increase in attention on such attacks, the violence and racially charged language was nothing new, said Mark Sung, whose parents own the store, and his wife Grace Lee Sung.
“When my husband got the call (about the attack), it was like a routine,” Lee Sung said. “He was like, ”Okay, check the mess. See the surveillance. File the (police) report.”
The pandemic has fueled the tension, the couple said, with some people blaming the coronavirus on the store’s owners. They have lived in the US for decades since moving from South Korea.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, you’re different,’” Lee Sung said, offering a sanitized summary of the insults. “’You obviously can’t be from around here. Go back to your country.’”
But the owners have experienced a different sentiment in the days since the attack: A woman arrived at the store and gave the owners soup. A pizza deliveryman showed up with five pies. A local doctor dropped off a check. More than $30,000 has been raised through GoFundMe to cover the store’s damage.