Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen Inside Holocaust Museum During Shooting
June 11th, 2009The loose unit index has gone off the chart recently.
Via: WTOP:
A security guard shot in an exchange of gunfire Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has died of his injuries.
Museum officials identified the guard as 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns of Temple Hills, Md. Johns, a special police officer, was a six-year veteran of the museum. In an e-mail to the Associated Press, director Sara Bloomfield says he “died heroically in the line of duty.”
The suspect, 88-year-old James W. von Brunn, remains in critical condition.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the suspect was acting alone when he entered the museum just before 1 p.m. Wednesday, raised his rifle and began shooting. The suspect started shooting before going through metal detectors.
“The second he stepped into the building he began firing,” Lanier said.
The weapon was a .22-caliber rifle, law enforcement officials told AP.
Von Brunn is said to be affiliated with white supremacist Web sites.
Channel 7-WJLA reports that a list was found in von Brunn’s with nine other locations on it, including the White House and U.S. Capitol, along with 2 news agencies. The Washington Post reports that the National Cathedral was also on that list.
Federal law enforcement sources tell WTOP von Brunn is a convicted felon. In 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and was found carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. He served more than six years in prison for the offense.
A Web site apparently linked to von Brunn contains Anti-Semitic and racist writings and promotes a book written by von Brunn. The biography section of the Web site says von Brunn was born in 1920, was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserves and a captain of a patrol torpedo boat during World War II and received four battle stars.
After a career in New York City as a copywriter and art director, von Brunn now lives in Annapolis, where he is an artist, according to the Web site.
According to a relative, von Brunn attended Washington University in St. Louis and is an artist.
A cousin, Virginia Gerker of St. Louis, said in an interview she hadn’t seen him in 50 years. She said her family had “disowned” him believed him to be mentally ill.
About a dozen years ago, he applied to have his art shown at a gallery in Easton, Md., according to two of the owners. Laura Era and Jennifer Wharton said they rejected his work and he stomped out.
Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center said von Brunn’s Web site has long been listed as a hate site.
The Rev. David Ostendorf, executive director of Center for a New Community in Chicago, a national civil rights group, said von Brunn has described in his own writings a long relationship with Willis Carto, founder of the Liberty Lobby, the Spotlight Newspaper and a well-known white supremacist and anti-Semite.
A law enforcement official said von Brunn’s vehicle was found near the museum and was tested for explosives. Law enforcement officials are also searching von Brunn’s home.
Joseph Persichini, assistant director in charge of the Washington FBI field office, said the shootings were being investigated as a possible hate crime or a case of domestic terrorism.
The shooting closed roads around the museum for several hours, tying up traffic downtown as authorities investigated.
The museum normally has a heavy security presence with guards positioned both inside and outside the museum. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and bags are screened.
Museum officials say the museum was full at the time of the shooting and estimate “a couple thousand” visitors were inside.
Among those inside the museum at the time of the shooting was former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen. Cohen was at the museum with his wife, who has a written a play entitled “Anne & Emmitt” that was to debut Wednesday night at the museum.
The play is an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank, the young girl who kept a diary while hiding from the Nazis during World War II, and Emmitt Till, a young black boy who was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman in 1955.
“This is something the world needs to stand up to,” Cohen told WTOP. “This is just another pathetic example of a hater.”
The museum, located just off the National Mall near the Washington Monument, is a popular tourist attraction. It draws about 1.7 million visitors each year.
Linda Elston, who is visiting the museum from Nevada City, Calif., said she was on the lower level of the museum watching a film when she and others were told to evacuate.
“It was totally full of people,” Elston said. “It took us a while to get out.”
She said she didn’t hear any shots and didn’t immediately know why there was an evacuation. The experience left her feeling “a little anxious,” she said.
