On Friday, a 25-year old man from Indiana carried out a ramming attack in Washington DC targeting the security barrier at the Capitol Complex and exited his car with a knife.
The Attack
The attack took place at a checkpoint approximately 100 yards from the Senate entrance to the Capitol Building.
UPDATE: Here is the latest information. pic.twitter.com/GOVaMv8EXk
— U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) April 2, 2021
Officers shot him dead while he was attempting to stab them. One officer was killed in the attack, another injured, and the assailant died on the way to the hospital.
JUST IN – Car smashed into the barrier at US Capitol complex. Two people are on stretchers. pic.twitter.com/OAkmvdrjj8
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 2, 2021
Police identified the slain officer as William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year veteran who was a member of the department’s first responders unit.
Assailant and the Nation of Islam
On his social media, the suspect in the attack, Noah Green, professed to be a follower of the Nation of Islam, a US-based Islamic religious organization led by Louis Farrakhan, posting videos by Farrakhan, and a screenshot of a donation he made to the Norfolk, Va. chapter.
Exclusive pictured, Noah Green, 25, has been identified as the Capitol Hill attacker pic.twitter.com/8g4pAcRkPz
— Hardly News (@Hardly26375072) April 2, 2021
In December 2020, he petitioned to change his name to Noah Zaeem Muhammad but failed to appear at his hearing in Indianapolis last Tuesday.
“My faith is one of the only things that has been able to carry me through these times and my faith is centered on the belief of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as Jesus, the Messiah, the final divine reminder in our midst,” Green wrote in a Facebook post obtained by the Stop Antisemitism movement. “I consider him my spiritual father.
In 2007, the Nation of Islam membership was estimated to be 50,000. Whites are prohibited from being members. Farrakhan has made numerous antisemitic comments in the past, frequently describing Jews as “Satanic.” In March 2018, he denied claims that he was antisemitic, explaining that he was “anti-termite.” He also has made many claims that Jews control the world. He stated that Zionists had key roles in the 9/11 attacks while Hezbollah were “freedom fighters.”
At a meeting of the Nation of Islam at Madison Square Garden in 1985, Farrakhan said of the Jews: “And don’t you forget, when it’s God who puts you in the ovens, it’s forever!”
His critics have compared his antisemitism to that of Hitler, to which Farrakhan responded during a March 11, 1984, speech broadcast on a Chicago radio station, “Hitler was a very great man.”
Nation of Islam and the Democratic Party
A Wall Street Journal article last year documented the close ties between several leaders in the Democratic party and Farrakhan despite his open anti-semitism. Rep. Rashida Tlaib has written blogs for the Nation of Islam. In 2018, the Republican Jewish Coalition called for the resignation of seven Democratic members of Congress whom it claimed were connected to Farrakhan.
Fox News published an article suggesting that in the wake of the recent attack “several prominent Democrats are likely to face renewed questions over their ties to Nation of Islam.” The politicians named in the Fox article included Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif), newly-elected Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C), and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill).
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ordered flags lowered to half-staff on the Capitol in the slain policeman’s honor, and President Joe Biden ordered the flags lowered at the White House, while the Senate’s chief Republican, Mitch McConnell, offered prayers.
