WASHINGTON — An 88-year-old gunman with a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himself by other officers, authorities said.
The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement.
Washington 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 W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting and that his car was found near the museum and tested for explosives.
Officials identified the guard who was killed as Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, a six-year veteran of the facility who lived in Temple Hills, Md. Museum Director Sara Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty.”
At the White House, just blocks away from the museum, President Barack Obama said, "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world.”
Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled "Kill the Best Gentiles,” alleging a Jewish "conspiracy to destroy the white gene pool.”
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 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 was crowded with school children and other tourists at the time of the attack.
by the associated press
The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement.
Washington 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 W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting and that his car was found near the museum and tested for explosives.
Officials identified the guard who was killed as Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, a six-year veteran of the facility who lived in Temple Hills, Md. Museum Director Sara Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty.”
At the White House, just blocks away from the museum, President Barack Obama said, "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world.”
Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled "Kill the Best Gentiles,” alleging a Jewish "conspiracy to destroy the white gene pool.”
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 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 was crowded with school children and other tourists at the time of the attack.
by the associated press
Von Brunn also has close ties to Battle of Baghdad dissident "Captain Eric May", and it appears that May himself may have ties to Steve Reimink (the real owner of Von Brunn's website), and to various Islamic groups:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/ghosttroop/message/6356
http://www.spiritone.com/~ghosttroop/Captain_Eric_H_May.html
Thank you for the InFo
ReplyDelete