Gunman shoots, kills, guard at Holocaust Museum

WASHINGTON — An elderly gunman, said by authorities to have a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past, stepped inside a crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, opened fire with a rifle and fatally wounded a security guard before being

WASHINGTON — An elderly gunman, said by authorities to have a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past, stepped inside a crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, opened fire with a rifle and fatally wounded a security guard before being shot by other officers. The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement and expressions of shock from the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman was "engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle. "The second he stepped into the building, he began firing." Law enforcement officials said James Von Brunn, 88, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting, and a second official said the elderly man’s car was found near the museum and tested for explosives. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the investigation just beginning. Museum officials identified the dead guard as Stephen T. Johns, a six-year veteran of the facility. In an e-mail, director Sara Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty." Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled "Kill the Best Gentiles." In 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and served more than six years in prison. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. At the time, police said Von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation’s economic difficulties. Writings attributed to Von Brunn on the Internet say the Holocaust was a hoax and decry a Jewish conspiracy to "destroy the white gene pool." "At Auschwitz, the ‘Holocaust’ myth became Reality, and Germany, cultural gem of the West, became a pariah among world nations," it says. The museum, which opened in 1993 and has drawn nearly 30 million visitors, houses exhibits and records relating to the Holocaust of more than a half century ago in which more than six million Jews died at the hands of Nazis. Its Web site says the museum "teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide." The crowd at the museum on Wednesday included many school-age children on field trips. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

About Post Author

Comments

From the Web

Skip to content