Police officer killed in US Capitol car-ramming attack

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Law enforcement collect evidence at the scene after a vehicle charged a barricade at the US Capitol. — AFP photo

WASHINGTON: A US Capitol police officer was killed and a second injured Friday after a vehicle rammed through security and crashed into a barrier at the Washington complex, forcing it into lockdown less than three months after a mob assault on Congress.

Capitol Police shot dead the driver after he jumped out of the car and lunged at them with a knife, Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told reporters.

President Joe Biden, who was with first lady Jill Biden at Camp David for the Easter holiday, offered his “heartfelt condolences” to the family of William Evans, the veteran policeman killed in the attack.

“Jill and I were heartbroken to learn of the violent attack at a security checkpoint on the US Capitol grounds,” Biden said in a statement.

US media said officials had identified the attacker as Noah Green, a 25-year-old Black man from Indiana and an adherent of the Black nationalist Nation of Islam movement.

Pittman said there was no immediate indication of his motivation or police file on him.

Green had graduated from Christopher Newport University in Virginia, where he played football, with a degree in finance in 2019, the school confirmed.

Some of his online postings in March suggested a level of despair and paranoia. He said he was unemployed and had health problems, and made references to biblical concepts of the end of times.

He wrote that he had faced “unimaginable tests” and was “in search of a spiritual journey.”

In one post he spoke of being tormented by the FBI and CIA, hospitalised and subjected to “mind control,” and called the government “the #1 enemy of Black people!”

He also said he was a follower of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who promotes Black nationalist, anti-white and anti-Semitic thinking.

Top officials expressed shock over the attack and sympathy for Evans, an 18-year veteran of the force.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags lowered to half-staff on the Capitol, calling Evans “a martyr for our democracy.”

Biden also lowered White House flags. — AFP