Pentagon Shooting Suspect Dies of Injuries
Last updated at 12:37 a.m. EST
A gunman coolly drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at the teeming subway entrance to the Pentagon complex Thursday evening, wounding two police officers before being shot and fatally wounded, officials said.
Pentagon police officers told CBS News correspondent David Martin that two Pentagon police officers were wounded before the shooter was himself shot - once in the head and once in the shoulder.
The medical examiner's office said hours later that the suspect, identifed by law enforcement officials as John Patrick Bedell, 36, had died of his injuries.
Officials said the two police officers' injuries were not serious.
Police say he walked up to a security checkpoint at the Pentagon in an apparent attempt to get inside the massively fortified Defense Department headquarters, at about 6:40 p.m. "He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting," said Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police. "He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face." The Pentagon officers returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.
The assault at the very threshold of the Pentagon - the U.S. capital's ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001 - came four months after a deadly attack on the Army's Fort Hood, Texas, post allegedly by a U.S. Army psychiatrist with radical Islamic leanings. In the immediate aftermath Thursday, investigators did not think terrorism was involved but were not ruling that out and did not discuss possible motives.
President Obama was "closely following the case" and getting updates from the FBI through his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
Police said they were speaking with a second man, who might have accompanied the shooter, and were running his name through databases.
The subway station is immediately adjacent to the Pentagon building, a five-sided northern Virginia colossus across the Potomac River from Washington. Since a redesign following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, riders can no longer disembark directly into the building. Riders take a long escalator ride to the surface from the underground station, then pass through a security check outside the doors of the building, where further security awaits.
After the attack, all Pentagon entrances were secured, then all were reopened except one from the subway, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He said the subway entrance was likely to remain closed overnight at least.
Keevill said the gunman gave no clue to the officers at the checkpoint about what he was going to do.
"There was no distress," he said. "When he reached into his pocket, they assumed he was going to get a pass and he came up with a gun."
"He wasn't pretending to be anyone. He was wearing a coat and walked up and just started shooting."
Keevill added: "We have layers of security and it worked. He never got inside the building to hurt anyone."
A Pentagon official working late in the building said people inside first heard of the shooting on television. They were later told the building was locked down and to stay in place.
Then at around 7:30 p.m. local time, they heard an announcement on the public address system that they could leave through Corridor 3 - one widely used to get access to one of the parking lots.
"We really don't know anything, just that we can leave now through that corridor," one official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about the incident.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A gunman coolly drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at the teeming subway entrance to the Pentagon complex Thursday evening, wounding two police officers before being shot and fatally wounded, officials said.
Pentagon police officers told CBS News correspondent David Martin that two Pentagon police officers were wounded before the shooter was himself shot - once in the head and once in the shoulder.
The medical examiner's office said hours later that the suspect, identifed by law enforcement officials as John Patrick Bedell, 36, had died of his injuries.
Officials said the two police officers' injuries were not serious.
Police say he walked up to a security checkpoint at the Pentagon in an apparent attempt to get inside the massively fortified Defense Department headquarters, at about 6:40 p.m. "He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting," said Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police. "He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face." The Pentagon officers returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.
The assault at the very threshold of the Pentagon - the U.S. capital's ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001 - came four months after a deadly attack on the Army's Fort Hood, Texas, post allegedly by a U.S. Army psychiatrist with radical Islamic leanings. In the immediate aftermath Thursday, investigators did not think terrorism was involved but were not ruling that out and did not discuss possible motives.
President Obama was "closely following the case" and getting updates from the FBI through his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
Police said they were speaking with a second man, who might have accompanied the shooter, and were running his name through databases.
The subway station is immediately adjacent to the Pentagon building, a five-sided northern Virginia colossus across the Potomac River from Washington. Since a redesign following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, riders can no longer disembark directly into the building. Riders take a long escalator ride to the surface from the underground station, then pass through a security check outside the doors of the building, where further security awaits.
After the attack, all Pentagon entrances were secured, then all were reopened except one from the subway, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He said the subway entrance was likely to remain closed overnight at least.
Keevill said the gunman gave no clue to the officers at the checkpoint about what he was going to do.
"There was no distress," he said. "When he reached into his pocket, they assumed he was going to get a pass and he came up with a gun."
"He wasn't pretending to be anyone. He was wearing a coat and walked up and just started shooting."
Keevill added: "We have layers of security and it worked. He never got inside the building to hurt anyone."
A Pentagon official working late in the building said people inside first heard of the shooting on television. They were later told the building was locked down and to stay in place.
Then at around 7:30 p.m. local time, they heard an announcement on the public address system that they could leave through Corridor 3 - one widely used to get access to one of the parking lots.
"We really don't know anything, just that we can leave now through that corridor," one official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about the incident.
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guy dies in a shoot-out and cBS calls him a suspect. what cBS
And remember all of you gun enthusiasts... The only difference between this guy and you is that he chose to use his gun illegally. He wasn't a criminal (at least as far as the story says) BEFORE he started busting caps at Pentagon cops.
Yet another shooting because we all have the right to keep and bear arms. Well, since only the perp died, I guess this chalks up the 2000 people wounded by legally obtained guns (again, an assumption, but a safe one) every year for every one killed by a gun in the 'line of duty'.
n. Anyone who detests Hoplong Cassidy movies.
But since he attacked the Pentagon, he might also have been a disciple of Bill Ayers.
Most likely just a nutcase, somebody who thought a lone gunman like himself could shoot his way into the Pentagon.
Just because Rambo is that powerful in the movies, doesn't mean it works it real life.
He's a right wing extremist like they all are, convinced by Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh of Sarah Palin that the reason they're stupid and fat and unsuccessful is because the gays or the blacks or the liberals are "keeping them down".
In short, he is most certainly another whiny, selfish, entitlement loving white conservative who blames all of his personal failures on others.
Guaranteed.
Perhaps you're right. It would be nice if all parents did their God-given jobs, so we wouldn't have to live in nanny-states that decide who can carry a gun , smoke, get fat, etc.
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Even Constitutional rights are regulated.
An 8-year-old cannot walk into a gun shop and purchase a semi-automatic firearm, even if he or she has never been in trouble with the law and gets straight A's in school.
The person's lack of maturity bars gun ownership, even though the Constitution doesn't give any age requirement for keeping and bearing arms.
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Anymore than they should be driving cars, getting married or moonlighting as Flight Controllers.
You forget that Chicago has had one of the strictest handgun ban in the U.S. for the past 40 years.
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It didn't work.
Like a treatment for a disease that isn't effective.
It's still the disease that is killing people, not the treatment.
If you raise your children right, guns will "result" in carnage no more than violent video games will.
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Who is going to decide which children have been "raised right" and can be trusted with guns, and which have been "badly raised" and must not be allowed to impulsively settle schoolyard disputes with gunfire ?
Or are you referring to some Pie in the Sky society in which all children are properly raised -- a society that has never existed and never will