[Ret10Echo]

March 5, 2010 - 5:17am

WASHINGTON - A gunman, who calmly opened fire and wounded two officers at the entrance to the Pentagon Thursday night, is dead after officers quickly returned fire.
"As the officers started to ask him for his pass to get into the Pentagon, he drew a weapon from his pocket and started shooting immediately," said Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police.

Officers, whose wounds are described as grazing wounds, immediately returned fire and critically wounded John Patrick Bedell, 36, of Hollister, Calif. He died hours after being admitted to George Washington Hospital.

"We were fortunate there were no other injuries," Keevill says.

This is the first shooting ever at the Pentagon's entrance.

"To my knowledge, it has never happened in our history, not with a gun," Keevill said.

Bedell, who lived with his parents, may have harbored resentment for the military and had doubts about the facts behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

More on what transpired is expected to be released at a 6 a.m. news conference.

The incident occurred at 6:40 p.m. Thursday and forced a brief lockdown of the Pentagon until Bedell was taken into custody.

The shootings also prompted the shutdown of the adjacent Pentagon Metro station until 8 p.m. Thursday. It reopened from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The Pentagon Metro station and Transit Center will remain closed Friday.

Gary Fiddler was in the Metro station at the time of the shooting.

"We were told by one of the police officers who had a gun pointed at us that an officer had been shot and it was a dangerous situation," Fiddler tells WTOP.

"Eventually everyone was ushered back downstairs. There was a Metro announcement that if we wanted to exit the station, that we had to do so at our own risk."

Those who were working late at the Pentagon first heard about the shooting on TV and were later told the building was locked down. Around 7:30 p.m., they heard an announcement on the public address system that they could leave through Corridor 3, which is widely used to access one of the parking lots.