‘He fought until the end’

Slain Pentagon cop from B’klyn eulogized by NYPD bro

An NYPD officer’s voice quivered as he eulogized his younger brother Monday as a law enforcement hero who “fought till the end” while protecting the Pentagon from an unhinged attacker.

Local police helicopters flew above a Brooklyn church to honor hometown hero George Gonzalez, 37, who was attacked Aug. 3 in Virginia.

Gonzalez, 37, an officer with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, was stabbed then shot with his own gun during an unprovoked attack at a Pentagon bus platform outside Defense Department headquarters.

Around 200 people attended the bilingual funeral at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Bushwick.

“George lived the life he wanted to live,” said Gonzalez’s brother Rodney Rupert, a Critical Response Command officer with the NYPD. “George was my only brother, my little brother. ... I know that George didn’t go down, didn’t stay on his knees. He fought, he fought until the end.”

Through a tour of duty in Iraq, and stints with the federal Bureau of Prisons and the Transportation Security Administration,

Gonzalez managed to maintain his love of all things New York, including Brooklyn and the Yankees, his family wrote on GoFundMe.

“We never imagined that the young police officer lying motionless on the pavement was our own beloved son and brother, George,” the family wrote. “And we could not imagine the grief we would bear when New York’s Finest from the NYPD came knocking on our door to solemnly inform us that George had passed and was now gone.”

Gonzalez, a Brooklyn native, was at the Metro bus platform outside the Pentagon’s main entrance when Austin William Lanz got off a bus and attacked

Gonzalez with a knife — “immediately, without provocation,” according to the FBI’s Washington field office.

A struggle ensued, during which Lanz, 27, got his victim’s weapon and shot Gonzalez to death.

Lanz then used the officer’s weapon to shoot himself. Other officers exchanged gunfire with Lanz, who died at the scene. It was unclear which bullet killed him.

The FBI said a civilian bystander was also injured.

Rupert said their dad died less than a year ago.

“Two hundred and fifty-nine is a significant number for me because that number is the days in between my father’s death and my brother’s,” Rupert said. “Less than a year ago, we went through all this.”

Spanish ballads played between prayers and eulogies. Taps rang out as Gonzalez’s white coffin was eased into a hearse.

Helicopters from the NYPD and the Nassau County Police Department buzzed overhead.

Gonzalez’s boss, Pentagon Force Projection Agency Police Chief Woodrow Kusse, said Gonzalez would be posthumously promoted to the rank of lance corporal.

“His sacrifice is honored by fellow first responders,” Kusse said. “A job well done, a life well lived.”

NYPD Officer Rodney Rupert (at left, with his mother), talked about his brother, Pentagon Police Officer George Gonzalez (above), at funeral at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Bushwick on Monday. Gonzalez was attacked and killed outside Virginia facility on Aug. 3.