April 2021 United States Capitol car attack facts for kids
Quick facts for kids April 2021 United States Capitol car attack |
|
|---|---|
_(cropped)).jpg)
The Capitol's Constitution Avenue checkpoint, where the attack occurred (here photographed in July 2009)
|
|
 North barricade
Location in Central Washington, D.C.
|
|
| Location | United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., United States |
| Coordinates | 38°53′30″N 77°00′30″W / 38.8916°N 77.0083°W |
| Date | April 2, 2021 1:00 p.m. (EDT) |
|
Attack type
|
Vehicle-ramming attack |
| Weapons | Nissan Altima |
| Deaths | 2 (including the perpetrator) |
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
1 |
| Perpetrator | Noah Ricardo Green |
On April 2, 2021, Noah Green, a 25-year-old black nationalist, killed Capitol Police officer William Evans and wounded a second officer after he deliberately rammed his car into a barricade outside the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. As a result of the attack, the Capitol complex was locked down. Green was shot and later died at a hospital from the gunshot wounds. Green shared extremist viewpoints advanced by the Nation of Islam prior to committing his attack at the Capitol.
Contents
Incident
On April 2, Officer Billy Evans was posted at a checkpoint on Constitution Avenue usually used by senators and staff members on weekdays, about 100 yards (91 m) from the entrance of the building on the Senate side. At about 1:00 p.m., a man deliberately crashed a blue Nissan Altima into the barricade. The vehicle struck Evans and another officer; Evans was hospitalized and died from his injuries. After ramming the two officers, the driver exited the vehicle with a knife, lunged at officers, and ignored verbal commands before being shot by police. The perpetrator was arrested, hospitalized and died of his wounds soon afterward.
The Capitol was placed on lockdown after the attack and staff were told to shelter in place, while members of the National Guard's Immediate Reaction Force mobilized near the checkpoint. The lockdown was lifted later that day.
Perpetrator
Early life and education
The assailant was Noah Green, age 25, who was born in Fairlea, West Virginia, into a family with ten children. He grew up in Covington, Virginia, in the southwestern part of the state and graduated from Alleghany High School. In high school, he played football and participated in track and field. He attended Glenville State College before transferring to Christopher Newport University (CNU) in Newport News, Virginia, where he was a defensive back on the football team.
Years before the attack
People who knew Green described him as athletic and popular in high school and college, but after he graduated from CNU, he became deeply paranoid and religious, leaving family and friends concerned that his mental state was unraveling. A U.S. official said Green increasingly suffered delusions and paranoia.
Green also wrote in Facebook posts shortly before the attack that "these past few years have been tough, and these past few months have been tougher" and that he had quit his job "partly due to my afflictions". He posted about the end times and the Antichrist. In a March 15 post, he encouraged "everyone to study Revelations [recte Revelation], study the signs of end times, study who the best [recte beast] is, study who the anti-Christ is, study who the false prophet is, and study the created images during those times."
Green became a follower of the Nation of Islam (NOI), a Black nationalist organization, and its leader Louis Farrakhan. On Facebook, he posted messages in support of the NOI, as well as speeches and articles by Farrakhan and his predecessor Elijah Muhammad. He petitioned to change his name to Noah Zaeem Muhammad in December 2020, but did not attend the name change hearing in Indianapolis, which was held four days before the attack. He also posted a Farrakhan video titled "the crucifixion of Michael Jackson" on March 21. In posts the week before the attack, he wrote that he believed Farrakhan had saved him "after the terrible afflictions I have suffered presumably by the CIA and FBI, government agencies of the United States of America" and claimed that "I have suffered multiple home break-ins, food poisonings, assaults, unauthorized operations in the hospital, [and] mind control."
According to his brother, a few months before the attack, Green left Indianapolis and moved to Botswana. He jumped in front of a car, seriously injuring himself, then returned to the U.S., where he moved in with his brother. Two weeks before the attack, Green posted a photo of a "Certificate of Completion" for a $1,085 donation he had made, under the name "Noah X" (in the style of Nation of Islam spokesman Malcolm X), to the Nation of Islam's Norfolk, Virginia chapter for Saviours' Day, along with a link to a Farrakhan speech called "The Divine Destruction of America". The night before the attack, he became violently ill and texted his brother, "I'm just going to go and live and be homeless."
Investigation
Investigators believe Green's attack was caused by a combination of his mental health issues and an ideological cause which he believed justified violence. He was not known to police before the attack and had no known connection to a member of Congress.
See also
In Spanish: Ataque al Capitolio de los Estados Unidos de abril de 2021 para niños
