WHAT POSSESSED 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell to spend several weeks driving from California to Washington, dress up in a business suit, park his ammunition-filled car near the Pentagon, walk up to policemen at the entrance to the US defence headquarters, pull out a semi-automatic Sturm 9mm and Taurus 9mm pistols and open fire?
Police said Bedell carried “many magazines” of ammunition with him, a possible indication that he intended to enter the building and shoot workers inside.
Bedell died early yesterday at the George Washington University Hospital, about six hours after his bizarre rush-hour assault on the Pentagon. He wounded police officers Jeffrey Amos, an air force veteran, and Marvin Carraway, a former marine, in the shoulder and thigh.
Both men are in hospital but their lives are not in danger. They and a third police officer shot Bedel in the head.
The Pentagon adopted extremely strict security measures after al-Qaeda crashed a passenger aircraft into it in the 9/11 atrocities. The wounded police officers assumed that Bedell was pulling an ID badge out of his pocket when he instead pulled out a gun.
Police yesterday were checking whether Bedell had permits to carry the weapons.
Initial fears of a terrorist attack were discounted by Pentagon police chief Richard Keevill, who told reporters: “There are no indications at this point that there are any international or domestic connections to this incident at all. At this time, it appears to be a single individual that had issues.”
Keevill said the Fort Hood shootings, in which 13 people were killed last November, “put us on notice”.
He described Bedell as “very well dressed, in a suit” and said “There was no indication of his possible intent. He was very calm; there was no stress in his appearance.”
The Washington Post reached Bedell’s father, also called John, by telephone in Hollister, California. He confirmed that his 36-year-old son, John Patrick, was “in the Washington area”, then said, “I’m sorry, I can’t talk about this,” and hung up.
There are many precedents of American individuals who “have issues” lashing out at symbolic targets.
On February 18th, Andrew Joseph Stack III (53) flew a small aircraft into the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin Texas, killing himself and injuring 13 people.
Last year a man shot and killed a guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington before he was wounded. In another incident, a man shot and killed two police officers at the entrance to the Capitol.