Pentagon police saved lives, force says

WOODBRIDGE, Va. -- Two Pentagon police officers — one of whom lives in Woodbridge — saved lives when they subdued a gunman Thursday night, a department spokesman said Friday.

Officers Jeffery Amos, 46, of Woodbridge, and Marvin Carraway Jr., 44, Clinton, Md., reacted “quickly and decisively,” said Chris Layman, a spokesman for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency.

The officers were checking identification outside the U.S. military headquarters in Arlington County when a man in a suit approached them about 6:40 p.m., Layman said.

He reached into his pocket as if to get an ID, he said, “but he didn’t get a badge, he got a gun.

The man, identified as 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell, had two 9 mm weapons and started shooting at the officers, Layman said.

Amos and Carraway then returned fire with their Glock service weapons, he said.

Amos was wounded in the leg, and Carraway in the thigh, Layman said.

They were treated and released from George Washington University Hospital, but Bedell died from gunshot wounds at the hospital about 10 p.m., Pentagon police said.

Amos, who retired from the Air Force after 20 years of service, started working for the police in May, Layman said.

The New Orleans native didn’t want to comment Friday when a reporter came to his home in Woodbridge, which was guarded by another Pentagon policeman who lives in Prince William County.

But Layman said Amos “did a great job.” And he said that the officer’s actions show that the department recruited well in hiring him.

All Amos would say when reached by The Associated Press, though, was: “I just thank the Lord that he shielded me when all of this took place.”

Layman said that the last serious incident involving the Pentagon police was in 2005 when an officer was killed in a hit-and-run car wreck.

“We haven’t seen something like this in a while,” he said.

Thursday’s events happened near the Pentagon Metrorail stop, disrupting service there into Friday morning, Pentagon police said.

It was still unclear Friday what caused Bedell’s violent episode, but he had a history of mental illness and had become so erratic that his parents reached out to authorities in Hollister, Calif., weeks ago with a warning that he was unstable and might have a gun, authorities said.

Investigators also were trying to unravel a bizarre series of Internet postings that suggested Bedell was fascinated with conspiracy theories, computer programming, libertarian economics and the science of warfare.

Curiously, he also proposed in 2004 that the Pentagon fund his own research on smart weapons.

The 28-page proposal outlined his idea for DNA nanotechnology research that might “provide significant new capabilities for the Department of Defense and the individual warfighter.”

That document was the first tangible link to surface connecting Bedell and the Pentagon.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738. The Associated Press contributed to this story.