Pentagon police attack suspect faced ‘many mental health challenges’, family says

The man who fatally attacked a Pentagon police officer last week before taking his own life was suffering from “many mental health challenges”, his family has said in a statement.

Austin Lanz, 27, on Tuesday morning got off a bus at the Pentagon Transit Center in Arlington, Virginia, then “immediately, without provocation, attacked ... Officer George Gonzalez with a knife, severely wounding him. A struggle ensued, in which the subject mortally wounded Officer Gonzalez and then shot himself with the officer’s service weapon,” the FBI Washington Field Office tweeted the following day.

Mr Lanz, who died at the scene, had been struggling for months, his family said in a statement to CNN.