FBI agents trying to solve the 1996 Olympic park bombing are looking at the background of the suspect in this week's fatal standoff with police, but they are inclined to think he's too "hotheaded" to be their man, an agent said.
The task force investigating the bombing and two other blasts found explosives and militia manuals at the home of Gregory Paul Lawler. He is accused of killing one officer Sunday and wounding another, then holding police at bay for six hours, after officers went to his home to investigate a report that he was beating his girlfriend.The FBI believes the bomber is less emotional, said Jack Daulton, special agent in charge of the Atlanta FBI office.
"I don't think (the bomber) is hotheaded," Daulton said in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I believe our bomber is more levelheaded and would not put himself in a situation like someone like Lawler.
"We are taking a look at all aspects of this individual. But we do this with many people who are arrested around this state," Daulton said.
Police said Lawler cut his hair and shaved during the standoff. Recently, the task force released composite sketches of a bearded man believed to have been in the areas of the two most recent bombings - one in January at an abortion clinic and another in February at a gay nightclub.
But Lawler's defense attorney, Michael Hauptman, said Lawler, 45, had shaved his beard before the shootings and there was no evidence linking him to the bombings, including the Olympic Park blast that killed one and injured 100 more.
"They are looking at him because they don't have anyone else to look at," Hauptman said Tuesday.