Two police officers at the Pentagon were wounded Thursday evening when a man walked up to the entrance of the complex’s subway station and, without a word, opened fire on them, Pentagon officials said.

Policemen patrolled the Pentagon after a shooting in Washington on Thursday.

Police officers quickly returned fire, fatally injuring the gunman after hitting him once in the head and once in the shoulder. The gunman was identified as John Patrick Bedell, 36, according to a police official here assisting with the investigation.

The injured police officers, whose names were not released, were wearing ballistic vests and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Richard S. Keevill, the Pentagon police chief. In a Friday morning news conference, officials said one of the officers had been struck in the shoulder and one in the thigh, and that both had been released from the hospital.

Pentagon officials said that the motive for the shooting remained unclear, but said the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

“It appears to be a single individual who had issues,” Chief Keevill said Friday morning.