March 05, 2010

Breaking Shots Fired at Pentagon (Updated Bumped)

ABC News:

Two police officers were injured by a gunman firing shots outside the Pentagon tonight and a suspect was in custody, a police spokesman said.

The shooting occurred at the Pentagon Metro Station, which is just outside the Pentagon's main entrance.

The shots were fired at about 6:30 p.m. ET.

Initially, hundreds of employees at the Pentagon were ordered to go into "Code Red" -- the entire building locked down, with no one allowed to enter or leave.

After about 45 minutes, people were allowed to leave the building...

Update by Abu Fatima

The motive for the shooting in suburban Washington, D.C., wasn't immediately clear, but the Associated Press, citing unnamed sources, identified the gunman as 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell and reported that authorities are checking whether a second suspect was involved.

The man was calm as he approached the officers at the main entrance around 6:40 p.m., Pentagon Police Chief Richard Keevil said at a news conference. The officers asked to see his pass to enter the building; he started shooting without saying a word

And Internet research shows that the guy was a 9/11 Truther and an anti-Bush nut case.

Via Charles Johnson comes this link to some crazy ranting from the guy. It was recorded in November 2006 — when Bush was president, to belabor the obvious. I transcribed this part, in which he is speaking of criminal organizations working within the U.S. Government:

This criminal organization would use its powers to convert military, intelligence, and law enforcement bureaucracies into instruments for political control, and the domination and subjection of society, while discrediting, destroying, and murdering honest individuals within those services, that work to root out corruption, and faithfully serve their fellow citizens. This organization, like so many murderous governments throughout history, would see the sacrifice of thousands of its citizens in an event such as the September 11 attacks, as a small cost in order to perpetuate its barbaric control. This collection of gangsters would find it in their interest to foment conflict and initiate wars throughout the world, in order to divert attention from their misconduct and criminality. The true nature of such a regime would find its clearest expression in the satanic violence currently ongoing in Iraq.

Update: The shooter John Patrick Bedell has died from his injuries.

WAPO: a third officer returned fire at Bedell, critically wounding him in the head, said Keevill, chief of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. Bedell died at George Washington University Hospital.

Video below fold:

PENTAGON POLICE CHIEF RICHARD KEEVILL'S UPDATE: