One police officer has died and another has been injured as is undergoing treatment in the hospital, due to an attack at the US Capital complex in Washington DC.
The police said: ”A car crashed into a security barrier before the driver lunged towards the officers with a knife.”
The officers opened fire and the suspect was shot dead.
The authorities also said that the attack that was carried out in January’s Capitol riot was not related to any terrorism.
“Whether the attack was at law enforcement, or whoever, we have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it and we’ll do that,” Robert Contee, the acting chief of Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department, said at a news conference.
Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said it was “with a very, very heavy heart that I announce one of our officers has succumbed to his injuries”.
In a later statement, she mentioned the name of the officer as William “Billy” Evans, who had been a member of the Capitol Police for 18 years and was part of the department’s first responders unit.
“Please keep Officer Evans and his family in your thoughts and prayers,” she said.
BBC partners CBS News was told by 2 law enforcement sources who are involved in the investigation said that the suspect in attack was a 25 year old named Noah Green from Indiana.
They also added that there was no previous information about him was found on any police database
In a post that was found from mid-March on a now-deleted Facebook page, Green wrote that he had recently left his job, “partly due to afflictions, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey”. He added he had been suffering the “side effects of drugs I was in taking unknowingly” and wrote extensively of his interest in the black nationalist religious organisation, Nation of Islam.
In a statement Facebook said it had designated the incident under its “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy”, meaning the suspect’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were being removed, as well as any content praising him.
The Capitol building’s security has increased immensely in their security presence.
As Congress is not currently in session, most politicians were not at the Capitol complex at the time of the attack.
