Excerpts from Pentagon Shooting Press Conference
“About 6:40 tonight, a person came (to) the Pentagon . . . area . . . (and) appeared to be pretty calm. As the officers started to ask him for his pass . . . he drew a weapon from his pocket and started shooting. . . . He did not say anything.”
Keevill said the suspect’s “situation is pretty critical” after officers returned fire and struck him. He did not identify the suspect.
— Asked whether the suspect was wearing military fatigues, Keevill responded, “I cannot confirm that.” He also said that the suspect fired his shots with a handgun.
— Asked the suspect’s nationality, Keevill said, “He’s an American citizen as far as I know.”
— Keevill did not detail where in their bodies the officers were struck, but he said the officers’ “injuries were grazing.”
— “The injuries to the suspect are a lot more severe,” he said.
— Keevill said that Pentagon police officers wear ballistic vests.
— Keevill said that witnesses “said he walked up very cool . . . no real emotion in his face . . . and he reached in his pocket . . . and came out with a gun.”
— He said investigators did not yet know the shooter’s motive.
— “We have a theory, but it’s still a theory,” he said. “It’s going to take time to develop that.”
— Keevill said “the suspect was wearing a coat” but would not say whether the suspect was wearing body armor.
— He said the Pentagon was locked down successfully. “We train with some regularity to see we can do it very quickly, and we did it very quickly tonight.”
— Keevill said he did not know how many shots were fired.