Capitol attacker Noah Green's family claims he suffered from mental illness but was 'not a terrorist'
Noah Green was identified by officials as the suspect in the Capitol attack, which killed one cop and left another injured in critical condition. Media reported on Green's Facebook activity and his claims that he was a follower of Louis Farrakhan, and believed the founder of Nation of Islam to be the "Messiah". Reports of Green being a terrorist also surfaced, but his family has fought back against those claims. The family said he may have been affected mentally following injuries. Green was reportedly a rising football star.
According to a US official quoted by The Sun, Green is understood to have been suffering from delusions and hallucinations before he rammed his vehicle into people near the Capitol on April 2. He was shot dead after he reportedly plowed his Nissan Altima into the security cordon and killed officer Billy Evans.
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The intention behind the attack is currently being investigated and an anonymous official quoted by AP said the events of April 2 were an isolated incident acted out by a disturbed young man.
The official said that the investigators had spoken to Green’s family, who spoke of his increasingly delusional thoughts. The Facebook posts have since been deleted but in one of them Green said that he believed that he was under government thought control and was being watched.
The incident occurred just days after the strict measures undertaken to keep Capitol Hill safe after January 6 were being relaxed. A giant fence was installed around the Capitol perimeter and for months traffic was restricted along the roads closest to the building. The statement from Green's family was published by Washington Post.
Noah's brother Brendan Green said his brother had been sick on Thursday. Noah apparently left a morbid message to him which ended up being the final communication between the brothers. The text message read, "‘I’m sorry but I’m just going to go and live and be homeless. Thank you for everything that you’ve done. I looked up to you when I was a kid. You inspired me a lot."
Noah was reportedly a stalwart defensive back on the Christopher Newport University football team but that was before he fell prey to paranoia. He apparently even claimed that his former teammates and roommates had drugged him with Xanax in 2019, which his teammates said was not true. His brother further revealed that Noah had continued to suffer from hallucinations, heart palpitations, headaches and suicidal thoughts that could have been related to drugs or mental illness.
He moved into his own apartment in Newport News, but ended up going to Indianapolis where he reportedly told his brother that people were trying to break into his apartment. When Brendan arrived at his new apartment, it was secure but his brother did not seem fine. He then moved to Botswana, from where he told his brother that "his mind was telling him to basically commit suicide.” In fact, he had even jumped in front of a car and had been injured enough to need surgery.
Two weeks before the attack, Brendan had received a call from his brother who said that he was "in a really bad situation and in really bad shape." Andre Toran, a features writer with the Louisville Courier-Journal and a former teammate of Green’s at Christopher Newport University, remembered him as a solid athlete, but explained that he got paranoid after claiming that his teammates had drugged him.
Green's family also insisted that he was "not a terrorist by any means" and also expressed "great sympathy for the officer whose life was taken and the other injured during these events."