George Gonzalez was a proud New Yorker, ever loyal to his home turf of Brooklyn and the New York Yankees. He was also a proud Army veteran, having served a ferocious tour at the height of the Iraq War, always mindful of his comrades who didn’t come home.
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And he was a proud police officer, like his older brother, having served as an airport security agent, a federal jail guard and finally a Pentagon police officer. He moved to Northern Virginia and adopted a puppy, but he still pined for Brooklyn, his numerous Facebook posts show.
“Turned in my New York plates today,” he wrote in 2019 after moving to Virginia. “Gotta admit, I was a bit emotional on the inside lol.”
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On Tuesday morning after the daily rush hour had passed, the 37-year-old Gonzalez was on routine foot patrol near the entrance to the Pentagon Metro station when a man from Georgia suddenly leaped off a bus and stabbed him, the FBI said. The man also grabbed Gonzalez’s gun and shot him, the FBI said, before shooting himself as other officers raced to the scene. Both men died.
Slain Pentagon officer was attacked Tuesday without provocation, FBI says
Gonzalez “had lived through what should have been the hardest part of life in general, which is combat,” said Sean Casey, a retired New York City police detective who served as Gonzalez’s platoon leader in Iraq. “It doesn’t get more difficult than that, and to be cut down in the prime of his life afterward in the capital of the nation that he was continuing to serve is just terrible to think about.”
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His family issued a statement, which said: “We are heartbroken over the death of our son and brother, but we are so very very proud of the life he lived. George devoted his life to serving his country; first in the military, and then as a law enforcement officer.” His brother is a New York City police officer, records show. His father passed away last November.
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Gonzalez once posted on Facebook that he was born in Chicago, but his heart was clearly in Brooklyn. He graduated from Canarsie High School in 2001 and wrote recently that he was looking forward to his 20-year reunion, though the school closed in 2011.
By the time he was 20, he was in the Army and deployed from South Korea to Iraq as part of the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, Army records show. It was the summer of 2004, and it would be a violent, chaotic year-long deployment.
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As a member of an artillery unit, Gonzalez was trained primarily to fire howitzer cannons capable of launching hulking 155mm rounds several miles. But when his artillery battery arrived on the outskirts of the city of Ramadi, they were instead assigned the work of infantrymen, placing them on mounted patrols in Humvees and foot patrols, said Casey, his platoon leader.
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Casey said his soldiers watched over a notoriously dangerous supply route known as Michigan. It ran from Baghdad west to Fallujah and Ramadi, and then on to the Syrian border.
“He was one of the younger soldiers that I had under me, but he had a great maturity about him,” Casey said. “He was always willing to step into whatever role was needed, and he was never one of the guys we needed to be concerned about as things kind of took darker turns.”
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One member of the platoon was killed by sniper fire, Casey said. After the unit returned to a more traditional artillery mission, three more soldiers were killed in April 2005, and one was catastrophically wounded when an insurgent rocket struck their howitzer. Gonzalez periodically honored his fallen colleagues on Facebook, even many years later.
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Casey, who left the Army in 2006, said members of the unit have kept in touch in a variety of ways, and the “phone tree lit up” after officials disclosed on Wednesday that Gonzalez was the officer killed at the Pentagon. Gonzalez was “a cutup” at times, and good for morale while in combat, Casey added. He expressed pride in his former soldier’s career in law enforcement and said he was devastated by how Gonzalez’s life was cut short in an apparent act of random violence.
When Gonzalez’s tour of active duty ended in November 2005, he joined the Army Reserve until 2011, serving as an information systems operator and achieving the role of sergeant, an Army spokesman said.
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In July 2007, Gonzalez began working as a transportation security officer at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, the Transportation Security Administration said. He was promoted to lead transportation security officer in 2011 and remained in that position until he left TSA in March 2016.
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Evelyn Andrade, who worked for TSA at LaGuardia from 2009 to 2014, said she remembers Gonzalez as a kind and easygoing co-worker. “He was always smiling,” she said. “You didn’t have to talk to him to know he was a good guy, it just came out of him.”
Almost immediately after leaving TSA, Gonzalez took a job as a correctional officer at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said. He worked that job until July 2018.
That same month, Gonzalez started a new job in a new town: police officer with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, charged with protecting the Defense Department headquarters and other related buildings. In three years, he was promoted twice, the agency said, attaining the rank of senior officer last year.
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In 2019, after he placed a job advertisement for his agency on Facebook, a friend asked him how he liked the job. “Alot better than working in a jail lol,” Gonzalez replied. “It’s not hard at all, I like my schedule and there’s opportunities to do some stuff if you really want to. And if you can tolerate Virginia drivers lmao.”
Gonzalez moved to Alexandria’s West End, public records and his Facebook posts show, and immediately commented: “Driving around here is weird. Still getting used to it. Right on red?” On New Year’s Eve, he cracked, “Places here close too early. I’m still used to New York hours. In any case, Happy New Year’s everyone!”
He remained devoted to the New York Knicks, acknowledging his resemblance to then-coach David Fizdale, regularly commenting on the play of the New York Yankees, and New York Giants, and New York Rangers.
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“And the season is underway!” went a typical Facebook post. “Let’s go Yankees!!!”
He also was troubled by mass shootings and the targeting of police officers. After the ambush of five Dallas police officers in 2016, Gonzalez wrote, “Feeling overall disgust, anger and sadness...To my friends inside and outside the realm of law enforcement: exercise your constitutional rights, voice your opinions, instill & inspire change within our communities, STAY SAFE; hold the line, watch each other’s backs, continue to serve & protect, uphold the constitution, STAY SAFE.”
More recently, Gonzalez wrote that consoling a friend over their own loss “as well as the death of a former officer of mine has me thinking of mortality. We may not completely blaze the trail we want, but the question is, will we be happy with the trail we leave behind.”
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A cousin from Virginia, Delvis Gonzalez, told NBC Washington, “George was a very humble young man. He was a man of service. He always wanted to serve the country, and at least we have the comfort that he passed doing what he liked to do, which was defending his country. .？.？. He was a man of his family, and that’s how we’re going to remember him.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered flags at the Pentagon to fly at half-staff.
“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,” Austin said. “He and his fellow officers are members of the Pentagon family, and known to us all as professional, skilled and brave.”
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