Bio

Bennie L. Lawson Jr. was born in about 1969. Before the police headquarters shooting, he had been connected to a street group known as the First and Kennedy Crew, named after streets in his neighborhood. In 1990, Lawson and several others were arrested after police found a large collection of weapons, including semiautomatic rifles and handguns. According to the New York Times material provided, Lawson was later convicted on multiple weapons and ammunition charges and spent time at the Lorton prison complex.

Lawson was also questioned by D.C. homicide detectives shortly before the police headquarters attack. FBI memorial records state that he had been questioned as a suspect in a triple homicide that had occurred about a month earlier. The source material also states that Lawson was concerned that people in his neighborhood believed he was cooperating with police. That belief reportedly damaged his reputation among associates and may have contributed to his decision to attack law enforcement.

Authorities later found handwritten notes at Lawson’s home. FBI records state that the notes indicated his intended targets were the commander of the police department’s homicide squad and homicide investigators. A Los Angeles Times report also stated that officials believed Lawson was motivated by revenge against police who had recently questioned him.

Lawson did not personally know the officers and agents he killed. According to later official summaries, he entered the wrong squad room after coming into police headquarters. The room he entered was used by the Cold Case Squad, a homicide unit where Metropolitan Police Department detectives and FBI agents worked together on unsolved murder cases.

Murder Story

On November 22, 1994, Bennie L. Lawson Jr. entered the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building in Washington, D.C. The building housed police offices, including the Homicide Cold Case Squad. FBI agents were assigned to work with MPD detectives in that squad as part of a joint effort to investigate older homicide cases.

At approximately 3:15 p.m., Lawson entered the third-floor Cold Case Squad room. According to the FBI, he was armed with a TEC-9 assault weapon and opened fire inside the office. The attack happened suddenly and left officers and agents inside the room with little time to react.

The victims killed in the attack were MPD Sergeant Henry Joseph “Hank” Daly and FBI Special Agents Martha Dixon Martinez and Michael John Miller. Daly was 51 years old and had served with MPD for 28 years. He had been assigned to the Homicide Branch in 1981 and became the first supervisor of the Cold Case Squad in 1992.

Michael John Miller was 41 years old. He was a Maryland native, a Georgetown University Law graduate, and had rejoined the FBI in 1992 after previously serving in the Bureau. Martha Dixon Martinez was 35 years old. She had joined the FBI in 1987 and had worked in violent crime and cold case assignments in Washington, D.C.

During the shooting, FBI Special Agent John Kuchta was seriously wounded. A 15-year-old boy who was also in the area was shot in the leg. FBI records state that more gunfire was exchanged during the incident and that Lawson also died from gunshot wounds sustained at the scene.

Later reporting described Lawson’s death as an apparent suicide, stating that he may have taken Agent Martinez’s gun and shot himself. However, official FBI summaries use broader wording and state that Lawson died from gunshot wounds sustained during the incident. Because the public record contains different descriptions, the most accurate wording is that Lawson died at the scene from gunshot wounds, with suicide reported by some sources but not uniformly stated in official summaries.

Investigators later determined that Lawson had been questioned the week before as a suspect in a triple homicide. FBI records also state that handwritten notes found at his home showed that his intended targets were homicide officials and investigators. A Los Angeles Times report said federal officials believed Lawson was seeking revenge against police because of that questioning.

The attack became one of the most serious law-enforcement killings in Washington, D.C. history. The FBI later noted that the 1994 shooting was only the sixth time in FBI history that two agents were killed at the same time as a direct result of hostile action, and the second such incident in Washington, D.C.