2 Pentagon officers shot; gunman killed

UPDATED:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The gunman who shot two Pentagon police officers was heavily armed and spent weeks driving to the Capital area from the West Coast, authorities said Friday. Resentment of the U.S. government and suspicions over the 9/11 attacks have surfaced in writings by the Californian identified as the man fatally wounded in a hail of return fire.

John Patrick Bedell, 36, of Hollister, Calif., was identified as the shooter and authorities said he’d had previous run-ins with the law.

Investigators have found no immediate connection to terrorism, and the attack at the massive Defense Department headquarters appears to be a case of “a single individual who had issues,” Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police, said in an early morning press conference.

Keevill described Bedell as “very well educated” and well-dressed, saying Bedell was wearing a suit, armed with two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and carried “many magazines” of ammunition. There was more ammunition in Bedell’s car, which authorities found in a local parking garage, Keevill said.

Bedell, 36, died Thursday night from head wounds received in a volley of fire with police. Keevill said the two injured officers and another officer who came to their assistance fired upon Bedell at the subway entrance into the Pentagon building in Arlington, Va.

“He came here from California,” Keevill said. “We were able to identify certain locations that he spent that last several weeks making his way from the West coast to the East coast.”

Noting that Bedell was wearing a suit, Keevill said: “There was no indication based on the way he was dressed that he had hostile intent.”

The exchange of fire lasted less than a minute but, numerous shots were fired, Keevill said, adding that he didn’t know how many because investigators were “still counting.” Bedell was not wearing body armor, he added.

The two officers injured have been released from the hospital. One suffered a thigh wound and the other was hit in the shoulder. Keevill said both were superficial injuries.

Keevill said he did not know the shooter’s motive.

“I have no idea what his intentions were,” said Keevill, who had late Thursday described the attack in this way:

“He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting” at point-blank range. “He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face.”

Beverly Fields, chief of staff of the D.C. medical examiner’s office, confirmed the man’s death and said his body arrived at her office shortly after midnight.

Signs emerged that Bedell harbored ill feelings toward the government and the armed forces, and had questioned the circumstances behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Story Continues →