Officer slain in attack IDd as officials seek clues

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators were digging Wednesday into the background of a Georgia man who officials say fatally stabbed a Pentagon police officer at a transit station outside the building before being shot and killed himself.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency identified the slain officer as George Gonzalez, a New York native and Army veteran who served in Iraq and joined the police force three years ago. He died after being attacked Tuesday morning on a bus platform outside the Pentagon.

The burst of violence temporarily placed the U.S. military headquarters on lockdown and jangled the nerves of a region already primed to be on high alert for violence and potential intruders outside federal government buildings.

The FBI was leading the investigation into the violence and the suspect, identified by multiple law enforcement officials as Austin William Lanz, 27, of Georgia. The authorities were examining Lanz’s background, including his criminal history, jail records, financial information and any online accounts as they tried to identify a potential motive for the attack, a law enforcement official said

Gonzalez was ambushed by Lanz, who ran at him and stabbed him in the neck, according to two law enforcement officials who could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Responding officers then shot and killed Lanz.

Lanz had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in October 2012 but was “administratively separated” less than a month later and never earned the title Marine, the Corps said in a statement. He was arrested in April in Cobb County, Ga., on criminal trespassing and burglary charges, according to online court records. The same day, a separate criminal case was filed against Lanz with six additional charges, including two counts of aggravated battery on police, a count of making a terrorist threat and a charge for rioting in a penal institution, the records show. A judge reduced his bond in May to $30,000 and released him, imposing some conditions, including that he undergo a mental health evaluation.