2010 Pentagon shooting

On March 4, 2010, John Patrick Bedell shot two Pentagon police officers at a security checkpoint in the Pentagon subway station. They returned fire and struck him in the head. He died a few hours later on March 5.

File:John Patrick Bedell arrest file.jpg

Picture of Bedell from arrest file

Shooting

The suit-wearing gunman was killed after shooting at and injuring two Pentagon police officers. The shooting occurred around 6:40 p.m during the evening rush-hour outside the Metro station entrance. As he neared the security checkpoint Bedell was reported to appear to be "pretty calm." Then as the officers started to ask for his pass "he drew a weapon from his pocket and started shooting," The officers, and another officer who came to their aid and also fired, defended themselves, shooting their attacker, and the gunfire was over in less then a minute. Bedell was armed with two 9 mm semiautomatic firearms and had several spare loaded magazines, Chief Richard Keevill of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency reported. Authorities found more ammunition in his car, parked in a local parking garage.

The two injured officers, named as Jeffrey Amos and Marvin Carraway, were soon released from the hospital. One had a thigh wound, and the other had a shoulder wound. Both injuries were superficial. The two injured officers and the shooter were transported to George Washington University Hospital by units of the Arlington County Fire Department.

Response

All the Pentagon's entrances were secured after the attack except one from the subway. All were reopened according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. The Metro station had also been reopened by 8 p.m except the entrance nearest the area of the shooting. Whitman said the subway entrance was likely to remain closed overnight at least.

The subway station is immediately next to the Pentagon. Re-designed after the 9/11 attacks, commuters no longer go directly into the building. Instead they must ride an escalator to the surface and pass through security outside buildings doors, where more security is located.

Perpetrator

Bedell, 36, was a computer programmer from Hollister, California.

He graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992 – 1994, B.S., Physics. He also attended San Jose State University, 1995 – 1996 studying Biochemistry.

Beliefs

A blog on Blogspot named Rothbardix (a probable reference to anarcho-capitalist Murray Rothbard), that appears to be authored by Bedell, subscribes to many libertarian beliefs, including, "The most basic principle of economic justice is the protection of private property and the protection of the right to freely exchange that property. Modern governments, however, consistently and routinely violate the rights of property owners..." Bedell also complained about the size of the United States government, organized theft by the government of citizen's personal property, government control of the economy including "[T]he constantly expanding regulation of business." Bedell also seems to suggest the United States government is controlled by an elite group of people and in his final paragraph of his last posting wrote, "The blatant violations of the Constitution's limitations on the economic role of the government, accomplished through many subtle usurpations over many decades, are perhaps even more pernicious than, and are certainly a key motivation for, the violent seizure of the United States government."

Bedell's anti-government views on his blog are also buttressed by his Facebook page, since deleted but image captured, wherein he associated himself as a fan of the libertarian/conservative Ludwig von Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, and Shelly Roche (a self-described libertarian.)

Bedell posted a proposal on Google Code for an "openinsurgent project" that would "integrate existing open-source codebases and new development to create an MMORPG simulation of low-cost defenses against futuristic, modern, and historical military opponents using a wide range of simulated defensive responses with real world systems." He concluded the description by "إن شاء الله", arabic for "God willing".

On March 5, possible indications came out that Bedell harbored entrenched bitterness towards the US military and had qualms about the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He has also been described as a "follower of the 9/11 'truth' movement."

In 2006, he was arrested for growing cannabis. He mentioned on his blog, Rothbardix, his arrest and subsequent dealings with law enforcement officials resulting from his arrest on marijuana charges and obstructing an officer. Bedell was described as motivated by a hatred of the federal government and an expressed desire to expose what he considered[1] an injustice in the case of a military suicide he argued was a coverup. He was reported to have stated that bringing attention to what he felt was military corruption would "see that justice is served in the death of Colonel James Sabow, as a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions and institutions such as the coup regime of 1963 that maintains itself in power through the global drug trade, financial corruption, and murder, among other crimes."[2]

Bedell also envisioned a system which required "billions and billions of carefully cultivated, highly valuable cannibis plants growing through the United States with complete security of property." This was to have been the basis for a proposed a new monetary system based on the value of a gram of cannabis.[3]

References

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