SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Sandy Springs Police on Thursday released violent and graphic bodycam video showing the moment a man attacked and stabbed an officer in November.
Police confronted the suspect, 22-year-old Matthew Lanz, during a home intrusion call - not knowing at the time he was also the suspect in the murder of an Acworth couple the day before.
The bodycam video shows officers arriving at the home and the owners telling police about a man upstairs. Officers waited for several minutes at the bottom of a staircase before the shadowy figure begins coming down.
"Hey come on down man," an officer said, with the man slowly walking down but not verbally responding.
Once the man reaches the bottom, the officer lunged at him as the man appears to raise a knife, with a struggle ensuing. A slow-motion clip from the other angle, on one of the other officer's bodycams, showed the man stabbing the officer in the back of the neck as he reached the bottom of the staircase.
The officer survived. In their last update in November, Sandy Springs Police said he was "doing extremely well and recovering at home with his loved ones."
Other officers use their Tasers and one shot Lanz twice while the injured officer begins to bleed profusely onto the carpet. Lanz, who also survived, remained on the ground and continues to struggle against officers, yelling several times as the officer bleeds.
Another bodycam video showed officers carrying Lanz, dressed in camo fatigues, out of the house and providing first aid on the front lawn.
Lanz faces dozens of charges in the two incidents. In the Acworth case, they include two counts of felony murder for the killings of Justin and Amber Hicks, a couple who friends described as "childhood sweethearts" and the parents of a 2-year-old boy.
Lanz also faces two counts of aggravated assault, and additional charges of home invasion and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in the Hicks case, according to Cobb County Police.
In Sandy Springs, he faces 35 counts, including 10 each of felony obstruction, aggravated assault on a police officer and attempted murder on a police officer. He also faces two counts of first degree burglary, one count of first degree home invasion, one count of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony and one count of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.