WASHINGTON: A police officer was killed and several other people were injured at the Pentagon’s mass transit terminal Tuesday in an incident that forced the lockdown of the US military headquarters, the Defense Department said.
Employees in the Pentagon building in Arlington, a suburb of Washington, were ordered to shelter in place for more than an hour after gunfire erupted in the bus and subway station just yards (meters) from the entrance.
@PFPAOfficial mourns the tragic loss of a Pentagon Police Officer killed during this morning’s incident at the Pentagon. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Officer’s family. Additional info on the officer will be forthcoming, following full next of kin notification.
— Pentagon Force Protection Agency (Official) (@PFPAOfficial) August 3, 2021
Officials said the site was secure 90 minutes after the incident but declined to explain what happened.
“The incident is over, the scene is secure, and most importantly there’s no continuing threat to our community,” said Woodrow Kusse, chief of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, which patrols the iconic five-sided building.
Kusse said there were “several injuries” but would not provide details or confirm reports that the officer was stabbed and died from his injuries, and that the attacker was shot dead.
Kusse declined to speculate on a motive for the attack or to say whether the assailant was in custody, but added that authorities were not actively looking for one.
He said the FBI was assisting in the investigation.
“This fallen officer died in the line of duty, helping protect the tens of thousands of people who work in — and who visit — the Pentagon on a daily basis,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
“He and his fellow officers are members of the Pentagon family, and known to us all as professional, skilled and brave.”
Austin said the investigation into the incident is continuing and said it should “proceed unimpeded and without speculation,” adding: “I have ordered to half-mast the flags flown on the Pentagon Reservation in honor of his loss.”
Subway services were temporarily suspended and buses headed to the station were diverted to other stops.
Scores of police gathered outside the George Washington University Hospital in Washington where the officer was taken.
“The Pentagon currently is on lockdown due to an incident at the Pentagon Transit Center. We are asking the public to please avoid the area,” the Pentagon’s security force tweeted after the incident took place at about 10:37 a.m. (1437 GMT).
The Pentagon has lifted the lock down and has reopened. Corridor 2 and the Metro entrance remains closed. Corridor 3 is open for pedestrian traffic.
— Pentagon Force Protection Agency (Official) (@PFPAOfficial) August 3, 2021
Arlington County emergency services said they encountered “multiple” people needing treatment at the scene, without providing any more information.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Austin was out of the building at the time, in a meeting with President Joe Biden.
The suspect was identified by multiple law enforcement officials as Austin William Lanz, 27, of Georgia, according to AP.
The officer was ambushed by Lanz, who ran at him and stabbed him in the neck, according to two of the law enforcement officials. Responding officers then shot and killed Lanz. Investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the attack and were digging into Lanz’s background, including any potential history of mental illness or any reason he might want to target the Pentagon or police officers.
The officials could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
In 2010, two officers with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency were wounded when a gunman approached them at a security screening area. The officers, who survived, returned fire, fatally wounding the gunman, identified as John Patrick Bedell.
(With AFP, Reuters, and AP)
