COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An Acworth man is facing 43 charges across two counties after a bizarre crime spree in which police say he shot couple who lived next door to death and stabbed a Sandy Springs police officer.
Matthew Lanz, 22, was arrested on multiple charges in Fulton County and faces murder charges in Cobb County.
Police said Lanz shot and killed Cherokee County firefighter Justin Hicks and his wife, Amber, in their home in Acworth before breaking into a home in Sandy Springs a few days later. When police responded, Lanz stabbed the officer and was subsequently shot by another officer.
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Lanz was taken to jail and the officer has since been released from the hospital.
Channel 2 Action News learned over the weekend that the Lanz family lived directly next to and shared a backyard fence with the home on Verbena Drive where the Hicks family lived.
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A we pieced together the case, it became clear that Matthew Lanz’s problems with the home on Verbena Drive began long before the murders -- and long before the Hicks family even lived there.
Lanz’s older brother, Austin Lanz, was arrested earlier this year for harassing the home’s previous occupants.
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Here’s a timeline of what led up to the shooting:
July 19, 2020 - April 18, 2021: Austin Lanz, 27, is caught on surveillance camera on three separate occasions leaving pornographic photographs and notes in the mailbox at the home. On one occasion, Lanz left a large sign taped to the home’s front door, reading “I’m done wondering for real. Wut is the point of that.”
Phillip Brent and his then fiancee Amber Wells lived in the home at the time. Brent’s grandfather owned the house.
Brent told the Washington Post that he and Wells did not know Lanz and didn’t understand his fixation on them.
April 24, 2021: Lanz is spotted on surveillance camera forcing open the door at the home on Verbena Drive with a crowbar around 4 a.m. He turns on the lights and stays in the home for 13 minutes, but doesn’t take anything, according to arrest records.
Lanz is arrested on criminal trespassing and burglary charges. As he’s being booked into jail, he attacks two police officers, which leads to additional charges of aggravated assault on an officer.
May 2021: A judge reduces Austin Lanz’s bail to $30,000.
Aug. 2021: Austin Lanz goes to Virginia to work and to undergo a mental health evaluation, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Aug. 4, 2021: Austin Lanz stabs a Pentagon police officer to death at the Pentagon Transit Center in Washington, D.C. Lanz was subsequently shot to death.
The officer is identified as George Gonzalez.
Lanz’s parents release a statement through their lawyer saying that their son was having mental health issues.
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Aug. 31, 2021: The home is sold.
Sept. 2021: Justin and Amber Hicks move into the home with their 2-year-old son.
Nov. 4, 2021: The Pentagon Force Protection Agency hosts a memorial service for slain officer George Gonzalez in D.C.
Nov. 18, 2021: Justin and Amber Hicks are found dead with multiple gunshot wounds inside the home.
Nov. 19, 2021: Matthew Lanz is arrested after police say he breaks into a home in Sandy Springs, then stabs a responding officer multiple times. Lanz is shot and wounded, then taken to the Fulton County jail.
Nov. 20, 2021: Cobb County police announce they have obtained warrants to arrest Matthew Lanz in the Hicks murders.
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