| John Patrick Bedell | |
|---|---|
Washoe County Jail mugshot |
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| Born | May 20, 1973 Hollister, California, United States |
| Died | March 5, 2010 (aged 36) Arlington County, Virginia, United States |
| Cause | Gunshot to the head |
| Status | Deceased |
| Occupation | Computer programmer Engineering student |
On March 4, 2010, John Patrick Bedell shot two Pentagon police officers at a security checkpoint in the Pentagon station of the Washington Metro mass-transit system in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.. The officers returned fire striking him in the head. He died a few hours later on March 5.[1]
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The suit-clad gunman was wounded after firing upon and injuring two Pentagon police officers. The shooting occurred around 6:40 p.m.[2] outside the Metro station entrance. As he neared the security checkpoint, Bedell reportedly appeared to be "pretty calm". When the officers asked for his credentials, "he drew a weapon from his pocket and started shooting". Joined by a third officer who came to their aid, the police [3] defended themselves, mortally wounding their attacker.
The conflict was over in less than a minute. According to Chief Richard Keevill of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, Bedell was armed with two 9mm semi-automatic firearms and had several loaded magazines. Authorities found more ammunition in his car, parked in a nearby parking garage.[4]
The injured officers and Bedell were transported to George Washington University Hospital by units of the Arlington County Fire Department.[5] The two injured officers, Jeffrey Amos and Marvin Carraway, were soon released from the hospital.[3] One had a thigh wound, and the other had a shoulder wound. Both injuries were superficial.[4]
All of the Pentagon's entrances were secured after the attack except the one leading from the Metro. 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.[2]
The subway station is adjacent to the Pentagon. It was redesigned after the September 11 terrorist attacks; commuters are no longer allowed to go directly into the building. Instead they must ride an escalator to the surface and pass through a security check outside the building's doors.[2]
Bedell (May 20, 1973[6] – March 5, 2010) was a computer programmer and engineering student[7] from Hollister, California,[8] with bipolar disorder who had been institutionalized several times[9] according to a 2006 Orange County court filing regarding an arrest for marijuana possession.[10][11] It is not clear that the bipolar disorder affected his behavior.[12]
He graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992–1994, B.S., Physics. He also attended San Jose State University, 1995–1996 studying biochemistry.[13]
Bedell was a registered Democrat[14] who was critical of the U.S. government.[15]
A blog on Blogspot named Rothbardix (a probable reference to anarcho-capitalist Murray Rothbard), that appears to be authored by Bedell,[16] 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..."[17] 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."[17]
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 Ludwig von Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, and Shelly Roche (a self-described libertarian).[18]
Bedell posted a proposal on Google Code for an "open insurgent 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."[19] He also created a Linux distribution called Rothbardix.[20]
On March 5, 2010, possible indications came out that Bedell harbored entrenched bitterness towards the US military and had doubts about the official story of the September 11 attacks. He has also been described as a "follower of the 9/11 'truth' movement."[21]
In 2006, he was arrested for growing cannabis.[22] 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.[17] Bedell was described as motivated by a hatred of the federal government and an expressed desire to expose what he considered[23] an injustice in the case of a military suicide he argued was a coverup.
He apparently wrote on a Wikipedia page 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."[24]
Bedell also envisioned a system which required "billions and billions of carefully cultivated, highly valuable cannabis plants growing through the United States with complete security of property." This was to have been the basis for a proposed new monetary system based on the value of a gram of cannabis.[25]
