Museum killings: ex-policeman says 'You always knew that threat was there"

WHITE PLAINS, Md. — After retiring from a 27-year career as a D.C. police officer, Harry Weeks thought working security at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum would provide a quieter way to make a living. A typical day involved greeting visitors and analyzing images of handbags as they passed through a magnetometer.

The new job turned violent, though, on June 10, when 50-year-old Weeks and another guard were forced to fire at a white supremacist who authorities said shot and killed one of their colleagues.

The memory of that day is still raw, evident in Weeks’ eyes and tense body as he described how he’s used time with loved ones, cigarettes and prayer to help him cope.

"It’s not going to be the same anymore,” Weeks said during an interview in the family room of his White Plains, Md., home. "You always knew that threat was there, well, I actually lived that threat.”

Weeks and the other guard who returned fire, Jason McCuiston, have been instructed by investigators not to discuss specifics of the shooting. Authorities have said the two fired at least eight times as accused gunman James von Brunn walked through the doorway after security guard Stephen T. Johns, 39, was gunned down.

"It was just so surreal,” said Weeks, who last fired his gun in the line of duty when he was 22.

Von Brunn, 88, has been charged with first-degree murder in Johns’ death and remains hospitalized. He was hit in the face by gunfire, but the FBI has said he is likely to survive.

Weeks was working at the magnetometer just before the shooting. McCuiston, a former Marine and police officer, stood next to him, handing items back to visitors once they were scanned.

The calm was shattered around 1 p.m., when authorities say von Brunn shot Johns in the chest with a vintage rifle after Johns, who was black, opened the door for him.

"He gave his life. He was where he was supposed to be. He was working his job — and he didn’t come home that night,” Weeks said of his fallen colleague.

The day of the shooting was supposed to be a day off, but Weeks and 30-year-old McCuiston were asked to work overtime to help with the expected large crowds for the debut that evening of a play about racial tolerance.

"I have to go back,” Weeks said. "To see those people again; I need to see the people I work with.”




by the associated press