Police kill Pentagon gunman
Source: Agencies |
March 6, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
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A California man killed in a shootout with Pentagon police drove cross-country and arrived at the military headquarters' subway entrance armed with two semiautomatic weapons, authorities said yesterday.
The shooter apparently left behind Internet postings resentful of the United States government and airing suspicions about the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
John Patrick Bedell, 36, of Hollister, California, was named as the gunman in the Thursday evening attack. Authorities said he'd had previous run-ins with the law.
Investigators have found no immediate connection to terrorism, and the attack that superficially wounded two police officers at the massive Defense Department headquarters appears to be a case of "a single individual who had issues," Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police, told a news conference yesterday.
Keevill described Bedell as "very well-educated" and well-dressed, saying the gunman was wearing a suit when he showed up at the secure Pentagon entrance on Thursday evening and blended in with workers.
He was concealing two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and "many magazines" of ammunition.
"He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting" at point-blank range, Keevill said. "He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face."
Bedell died on Thursday night from head wounds received when the two injured officers and another officer returned fire, Keevill said.
The exchange of fire at the subway entrance in Arlington, Virginia, lasted less than a minute but numerous shots were fired, Keevill said, adding that 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 what motivated the shooting: "I have no idea what his intentions were."
The shooter apparently left behind Internet postings resentful of the United States government and airing suspicions about the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
John Patrick Bedell, 36, of Hollister, California, was named as the gunman in the Thursday evening attack. Authorities said he'd had previous run-ins with the law.
Investigators have found no immediate connection to terrorism, and the attack that superficially wounded two police officers at the massive Defense Department headquarters appears to be a case of "a single individual who had issues," Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police, told a news conference yesterday.
Keevill described Bedell as "very well-educated" and well-dressed, saying the gunman was wearing a suit when he showed up at the secure Pentagon entrance on Thursday evening and blended in with workers.
He was concealing two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and "many magazines" of ammunition.
"He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting" at point-blank range, Keevill said. "He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face."
Bedell died on Thursday night from head wounds received when the two injured officers and another officer returned fire, Keevill said.
The exchange of fire at the subway entrance in Arlington, Virginia, lasted less than a minute but numerous shots were fired, Keevill said, adding that 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 what motivated the shooting: "I have no idea what his intentions were."
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