A California man who was fatally shot after opening fire on security officers outside the Pentagon appears to have been acting alone, with no links to domestic or international terrorism, police said today.
The gunman, identified by authorities as 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell, was trying to gain entry to the US defence department headquarters when he approached a security checkpoint and started shooting, police said.
"He was very well armed. I will tell you he had two 9mm semiautomatic weapons and many magazines," Mr Keevill said.
He was shot in the head yesterday evening near the main entrance to the building in a shootout with three security officers, two of whom received "superficial" bullet wounds and were treated and released from a local hospital, Pentagon police chief Richard Keevill told reporters.
"There is no indication at this point that there [is] any domestic or international terrorism nexus to this at all," Mr Keevill said. "There doesn't appear to be anyone else acting in concert with Mr Bedell."
Mr Keevill said authorities do not know Mr Bedell's motives in the shooting, which occurred at the Pentagon entrance near a busy commuter rail station. But Mr Keevill said authorities are looking into a series of internet postings by a user identified as "JPatrickBedell" for clues.
These postings make reference to US marijuana laws and marijuana-related felony charges in 2006 in California against John Patrick Bedell. They also refer to the September 1th, 2001 attacks against the United States and the case of a US Marine Corps colonel who died in 1991.
Mr Keevill said authorities had not yet determined whether those postings were made by the gunman.
The underground Metro station is adjacent to the main entrance of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington.
Bloomberg