White supremacist gunman storms DC Holocaust memorial, kills guard

6/10/09
u.s. holocaust memorial museum
By Marlene Naanes

White supremacist gunman storms DC Holocaust memorial, kills guard

Photo credit: Urbanite

(Getty)

Marlene Naanes

mnaanes@am-ny.com

A rifle-toting 88-year-old white supremacist yesterday stormed the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and opened fire, killing a security guard before being shot, authorities said.

Security Guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, died a couple hours after the attack, which happened just before 2 p.m. Gunman James von Brunn, a Holocaust denier from Annapolis, Md., remained in critical condition last night and was under investigation in the shooting that took place while a couple thousand people were in the museum. A third person suffered minor injuries.

“The second he stepped into the building he began firing,” Washington D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

Authorities called the deadly shooting an “extremely isolated incident,” but as a precaution they also dispatched police to about 100 possible “targets” listed in a notebook owned by the gunman, according to the Washington Post. Police found von Brunn’s car near the museum yesterday and tested it for explosives while the FBI checked his computer.Von Brunn, who runs a white supremacist Web site and has written an anti-Semitic tome, also was convicted for attempting to kidnap Federal Reserve Board members in 1983, using a revolver, sawed-off shotgun and knife in that attack.

Authorities did not release an official motive in the attack yesterday, but von Brunn’s neighbors said he recently told them that the Holocaust did not occur, the Washington Post reported.

His writings expressed the same view, and many elaborated his hatred for Jews.

“History shows us that JEWS are compulsive LIARS,” von Brunn said in his writings, which he titled “Kill the Best Gentiles.” “It is a genetic characteristic that all JEWS share. All JEWS know the ‘HOLOCAUST’ is a lie — because they understand one another.”

On his Web site, von Brunn wrote that he worked as an advertising exec and film producer in New York for 20 years, was a PT boat captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves in World War II and most recently was an artist and author.

His hatred apparently goes beyond just anti-Semitism. He also uses slurs against black people on his Web site.

Johns, who is black, worked at the Holocaust Memorial for six years. The museum, which was closed yesterday after the shooting, will remain closed today and its flags will be flown at half-mast in the slain guard’s honor.

“There are no words to express our grief and shock over today’s events at the Museum,” a statement on the memorial’s Web site said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johns’ family.”

(With AP)
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u.s. holocaust memorial museum

White supremacist gunman storms DC Holocaust memorial, kills guard

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