President Joe Biden called upon his own familiarity with tragedy as he joined members of Congress to honor fallen Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans.
“I may have some idea of what you are feeling like. I buried two of my children,” Biden said to Evans’s widow during remarks at a memorial for Evans at the Capitol on Tuesday. Biden’s first wife Neilia and 1-year-old daughter Naomi died in a 1972 car crash just after he was first elected, and his son Beau died from brain cancer in 2015.
“My prayer for all of you is that day will come when you have that memory,” Biden said, and “you smile before you bring a tear to your eyes.”
Evans, 41, was on the Capitol Police force for 18 years. He died on April 2 after a car rammed into a barricade outside the Capitol. He is the father of two children, 9-year-old Logan and 7-year-old Abigail.
CAPITOL OFFICER KILLED AFTER BEING RAMMED BY DRIVER; SUSPECT SHOT DEAD BY POLICE
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave Evans the rare honor to lie in the Capitol rotunda on Tuesday, a gesture usually reserved for high-ranking political figures. He is the second Capitol Police officer to lie in honor in the rotunda after Brian Sicknick, who died in the line of duty during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, also got the tribute.
Biden advised Evans’s wife to hold Logan and Abigail “as tightly as you can, because as long as you have them, you’ve got Billy.”
“Losing a son, daughter, brother, sister, mom, dad — it’s like losing a piece of your soul,” Biden said. “It’s buried deep, but it comes back.”
Before returning to his seat, Biden gave Logan what appeared to be a presidential coin.
“Billy was the best father, son, brother, and friend anyone could ever hope for,” Evans’s family said in a statement following his death. “The absolute most important thing in his life was his two children, Logan and Abigail. His most cherished moments were those spent with them — building with Lego, having lightsaber duels, playing board games, doing arts and crafts, and recently finishing the Harry Potter series.”
Before the memorial ceremony, the two children stood on the steps of the Capitol holding stuffed animals as they watched their father’s casket brought into the building.
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The suspect in the car-ramming attack, 25-year-old Noah Green, allegedly got out of the car while wielding a knife. Green died after being shot by police. His apparent Facebook account indicated that he had recently lost his job and appeared to be a follower of the Nation of Islam, a black separatist group. The account has since been taken down.
Another Capitol Police officer, Ken Shaver, was also wounded during the attack and was hospitalized but survived and is recovering at home.
