OFFICIAL SAYS D.C. SUSPECT HAD SUFFERED DELUSIONS

Car attack fallout could slow decisions about Capitol fencing, security

The man who rammed a car into two officers at a barricade outside the U.S. Capitol, killing one of them before he was shot to death by police, had been suffering from delusions, paranoia and suicidal thoughts, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Saturday. Investigators believe it was an isolated incident from a disturbed young man, but officials say it raises questions about security.

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 condition of anonymity. The official said investigators had talked to Green’s family, who spoke of his increasingly delusional thoughts.

In a statement released Saturday, Green’s relatives wrote that they “feel great sympathy for the officer whose life was taken and the other injured during these events.” They said they “were just as taken aback as the rest of the nation from this horrific event.”

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 founder, 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 U.S. Capitol Police, still struggling to heal from the Jan. 6 insurrection. On Saturday, the Capitol Police said on Twitter that the department “is deeply grateful for the support we’ve received from around the world. We wish we could respond to each one of you. Please know your sympathy is appreciated beyond words.”

Friday’s 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.

Lawmakers have almost universally loathed the fencing, saying the seat of American democracy was meant to be open to the people, even if there was always going to be a threat.

But after Friday’s attack, some said they needed to proceed with caution.

“It’s an eyesore, it sucks,” Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio said about the fencing. “Nobody wants that there. But the question is, is the environment safe enough to be able to take it down? In the meantime, maybe that fence can prevent some of these things from happening.”

Ryan, chairman of a House spending committee that oversees security and the Capitol, stressed that no decisions had been made, and that lawmakers would be “reviewing everything” after the latest deadly incident. His committee and others are looking at not only the fence but at the staffing, structure, and intelligence capabilities of the Capitol Police.

“The scab got ripped off again here today,” Ryan said. “So we’ve got to figure this out.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Saturday that Officer William “Billy” Evans’ death “has only added to the need to address security at the Capitol in a comprehensive way” after the January breach. Along with Ryan’s House panel, two Senate committees have been looking into what changes need to be made.

Despite the fencing, Friday’s breach happened inside the perimeter. The driver slipped through a gate that had opened to allow traffic in and out of the Capitol and rammed a barrier that had protected the building long before Jan. 6. And there was no evidence that Green’s actions were in any way related to the insurrection.

Still, it was a reminder that there is always a target on one of the country’s most visible public buildings, especially as political tensions have risen since the insurrection and there has been broad public scrutiny of the security failures that day.

“This may just cause everybody to pump the brakes a bit on taking the fence down entirely because of the sense of security that it provides us,” said Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia, another member of the spending panel that oversees the legislative branch.

As a lawmaker who represents the suburbs of Washington, Wexton said she wants to see the Capitol open again to visitors. While the indoor parts of the building have been closed to the public for the last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the plazas, roads and sidewalks that surround the Capitol were only cut off after the riot, keeping the public completely away from the area.

“I would like to see it come down at the earliest possible moment,” Wexton said of the fencing.

While lawmakers were initially supportive of the fencing to secure the area, and the thousands of National Guard troops sent to the Capitol to back up the overwhelmed police force, they soon said they were ready for a drawdown.

“I think we’ve overdone it,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell of Kentucky last month. “It looks terrible to have the beacon of our democracy surrounded by razor wire and National Guard troops.”

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the top Republican on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said the fencing should come down because the next security problem is “highly unlikely to be a carbon copy of the last problem.” Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida told Fox News he believed Democrats were keeping the fence up for “political reasons.”

But abhorrence of the fence is a rare issue on which the two parties can agree.

“It’s just ghastly, it’s an embarrassment,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat. “If there’s a better way to protect us, I want to see it. I want to work to get it.”

Security officials, though, say that the Capitol cannot return to what had been status quo.

In February, Pittman told lawmakers that “the Capitol’s security infrastructure must change.”

A security review requested by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., in the aftermath of the riot and conducted by a task force recommended eventually replacing the barrier with mobile fencing and “an integrated, retractable fencing system” that could be used as needed. But it is unclear whether such an expensive proposal could win approval from Congress.

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 from the entrance of the building on the Senate side of the Capitol.

The area was locked down for hours Friday but has since reopened, and National Guard troops stood outside the building on Saturday.