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FBI Office To Bear Mt. Lebanon Woman's Name

Slain Agent To Be Honored

UPDATED: 9:53 a.m. EDT April 16, 2001

A building to be constructed for the FBI's Pittsburgh division will be named for a local agent who was shot and killed six years ago, officials said.

The FBI's South Side office headquarters will be named for Martha Dixon-Martinez, 35, of Mount Lebanon.

Dixon-Martinez, another agent and a police sergeant were killed on Nov. 22, 1994, when Bennie Lee Lawson Jr. opened fire in a Washington police station that housed a joint FBI-police "cold case squad" on its third floor.

Dixon-Martinez shot Lawson's gun out of his hand. But Lawson picked up her gun, shot her in the back and head, and then killed himself.

"We're just glad that we can have a happy moment to offset our sad memories," said Mary Dixon, her mother.

Dixon-Martinez graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1977 and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She joined the FBI in 1987, working in the Knoxville, Tenn., field office before moving to Washington.

She received the FBI's Medal of Honor and Memorial Star and the U.S. Attorney General's Award for Bravery following her death.

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