Suspect’s former teammates shocked
But news reports find ‘disturbing’ behavior before Green’s alleged attack at US Capitol
Teammates of former Christopher Newport University football player Noah Green said his behavior while in the program provided no indication of his fateful actions Friday at the U.S. Capitol.
Green, 25, rammed his car into two officers at a barricade, killing veteran Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans, then got out of his car and ran toward officers with a knife, the Associated Press reported.
He was shot by police and died later at a hospital.
“I was really, really, really surprised,” said Luke Gilbert, a tight end on the 2017 CNU team on which Green, who also played for the Captains in 2018 as a defensive back. “I got woken up by calls from three (former CNU) teammates I played with, and they were just as surprised as me.”
“Everybody was shocked,” he said. “You wouldn’t have expected that out of him.”
But a report from the Washington Post said Green’s family was concerned in recent years about possible mental illness and that Green had sent a disturbing text message Thursday to his brother that sounded like a goodbye.
Various media reports say
“I was really, really, really surprised. I got woken up by calls from three ( former CNU) teammates I played with, and they were just as surprised as me.”
— Luke Gilbert, a tight end on the 2017 CNU team
Green described himself on social media as a devotee of the Nation of Islam, a Black separatist group, and its leader Louis Farrakhan. CNN reported that Green posted links on Instagram to Farrakhan’s videos only two hours before the Capitol Hill attack.
Michael Muhummad, a member of the Nation of Islam’s Norfolk chapter and the organization’s former national youth minister, said he didn’t know Green. But Muhammad said using a weapon of any kind “is totally adverse” to the organization’s teachings.
“I can tell you that it is Louis Farrakhan’s and the Nation of Islam’s position that its members not even carry as much as a pen knife,” Muhammad said. “So if this man used his car as a weapon, and his knife as a weapon, that is certainly not indicative of the Nation of Islam.”
Green’s biography on CNU’s football website says he was raised in Covington, Virginia, one of 10 children born to Mazie and Newton Green.
After attending Alleghany High School in Covington, he played football at Glenville
State University in West Virginia before transferring to CNU as a sophomore in 2017. Green played defensive back for the Captains in 2017 and 2018 before graduating with a finance degree in 2019, the school said.
Gilbert said Green was “a pretty good football player” — at his best playing against the run — and made 22 tackles in his first season at CNU. Another member of the team who requested anonymity described Green as “very athletic” and “fantastic, an all-around good guy and good teammate.”
Outside of football, Gilbert said, Green was a “social guy” who would go out on weekends. Gilbert said his locker was near Green’s and, while his teammate was “quiet,” they “talked here and there.” They usually discussed football, Gilbert said, adding that Green never brought up politics. The football biography describes a man with a variety of interests. “Favorite sports personality is (NBA star) Russell Westbrook,” the bio says. “Dream vacation is a trip to Jamaica. … Person in history he’d most like to meet is Malcolm X.”
While in Hampton Roads, Green lived in Virginia Beach and Hampton, according to the Nexis person locator service. Media accounts also said he lived in Newport News for a time.
Green’s brother, Brendan Green, 28, of Covington, couldn’t be reached on Saturday. But on Friday, he told the Washington Post his brother suffered from hallucinations, heart palpitations, headaches and suicidal thoughts in recent years, which the elder Green said could have stemmed from drugs or mental illness.
After accusing former teammates and roommates of drugging him with Xanax in 2019 — an allegation the Post said was seen as questionable by others — Green moved to Indianapolis. While in Indiana, the Post reported, Green told his brother people were breaking into his apartment, which his brother couldn’t verify.
Noah moved to Botswana a couple of months ago, Brendan Green told the Post, and said he felt suicidal while in the Southern African country, to the point that he jumped in front of a moving car. The elder Green said his brother called a couple weeks ago, crying and asking for help, and moved in with him in Virginia.
On Thursday afternoon, Brendan Green told the Post, Noah sent him a disturbing text. “I’m sorry but I’m just going to go and live and be homeless,” the message said. “Thank you for everything that you’ve done. I looked up to you when I was a kid. You inspired me a lot.”
The Post reported that Green also posted to his Facebook account in recent weeks about going through tough times.
“I have been tried with some of the biggest, unimaginable tests in my life,” Green posted on March 17 according to the Post. “I am currently now unemployed after I left my job partly due to afflictions, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey.”
The Post, New York Times and CNN referenced Green’s social media posts talking of his devotion to Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, with links to speeches by Farrakhan and past leader Elijah Muhammad.
The New York Times reported that on March 17, Green posted
a picture of a donation he made to the Norfolk chapter of the Nation of Islam, along with a link to a speech from Farrakhan titled “The Divine Destruction of America.” The donation was for $1,085, CNN reported.
And less than two hours before the Capital attack, CNN reported, Green posted several links on Instagram to videos of Farrakhan. “The U.S. Government is the #1 enemy of Black people!” a caption on one video read, according to CNN.
Last week, CNN reported, a post by Green said that Farrakhan saved him “after the terrible afflictions I have suffered presumably by the CIA and FBI, government agencies of the United States of America.”
Tina Pullen, a spokeswoman for the Norfolk FBI Field Office, said the investigation into the case is being led by the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington. “The FBI is providing assistance to the Metropolitan Police Department, but I can’t be specific about what kind of assistance that is,” she said.