Early reports are sketchy though it appears that a man walked in to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. with a shotgun, shot one guard, then a second guard shot the shooter. A third person was injured by broken glass.
MSNBC is now reporting that the shooter’s name is James Wenneker Von Brunn, was born in 1920 and has ties to anti-government and white supremacist organizations.
They also report that in 1981 he walked in to the Federal Reserve with weapons, a handgun and sawed off shotgun, and threatened to take hostages because of high interest rates — apparently thinking he was making a citizen’s arrest. He was captured and convicted.
From the Washington Post:
A gunman armed with a shotgun walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington today and opened fire on a security guard before being shot and seriously wounded by at least one other guard, authorities said.
Suspect and weapon are in custody.
Sources tell CBS News the suspect is James Von Brunn, who is said to be affiliated with white supremacist web sites.
Brunn and the guard were transported to George Washington Hospital. No word on either’s condition at this time.
A third person was injured from flying glass and refused treatment.
UPDATE: The networks are now reporting that the security guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns, has died.
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Thank you twolf. This is terrible. Anything yet on the suspect?
The holocaust museum is imho like a shrine. A very humbling place to visit.
Imagine my dismay when I visited (with a school group). I was in the vicinity of an elderly couple, the gentleman was old enough to be a war vet of some kind. There were a couple of other teens (goth apparel) who were pointing and laughing at the exhibits. I couldn’t stand it and in my most calm grown up voice, asked them to please remember that some visitors were directly affected by the holocaust.
They did stop, as though I had asked them to change the channel of the TV and no fuss, to my surprise.
It’s a haunting place.
suspect: James Wenneker Von Brunn
added to post
thanks.
ever notice how these nutjobs are anti government too? talk about anarchy! someone at a Tiller protest had a sign with Uncle Sam and the red circle with the slash indicating “NO” on him. really weird.
Ah, some more of that nonexistent right-wing domestic terrorism we’re not supposed to worry our pretty little heads about.
from PSRK over in the comments at Michelle Malkin’s
So, if I don’t like the law on the books about gun ownership, what should a God fearing gal like me do about it? /s
Tiller then this.
No more funding for foreign wars. This is a huge red flag for the war within the US.
Holder needs to get moving on a clamp down of US extremist groups.
All law enforcement in the US needs to get moving on a clamp down of US extremist groups.
Big Time.
I won’t follow that link, thankyouverymuch Elliott. Disgusting, especially coming on the heels of Dr. Tiller’s murder.
More info from Dana Goldstein here:
HOLOCAUST MUSUEM [sic] SHOOTER IS WHITE SUPREMACIST.
There almost surely will be several more. The first one kinda breaks a taboo, then all the others who have been thinking along the same lines feel free to act.
First thing you need to do is give every member of congress hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Call me crazy but I don’t think octogenarians should be fathering children, even when they’re not insane.
Does anyone know the condition of the guard?
So you mean to tell me that the Holocaust Museum has NO metal detectors or any kind of obstacle for weapons of this destruction to make it inside? Is TSA in charge of the metal detectors at the door of this location?
My guess is nothing will happen to this guy, as he’s 88 years old. Before they get around to a hearing for insanity, which is inevitable for his defense, he will probably have died of natural causes.
However, whomever is in charge of security at the museum needs to be unemployed and blacklisted from any further such position, along with anyone who was on duty at the time.
According to the DC fire dept rep on msnbc right now, the guard condition is very serious. I think I heard that he got shot in the head.
not paying attention to the teevee – have any of the bobbleheads mentioned the DHS Report ?
From Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/
Holocaust Museum Shooter Had Close Ties to Prominent neo-Nazis
Posted in Anti-Semitic, Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist by Heidi Beirich on June 10, 2009
Law enforcement officials have identified the suspect in the Holocaust Museum shootings as James Wenneker von Brunn, born in 1920, from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. D.C. Police Spokeswoman Traci Hughes reportedly said the suspect walked into the museum at about 1 p.m. ET with a rifle and shot a guard.
Von Brunn runs the von Brunn website website holywesternempire.org, which was listed in 2008 as a hate site by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Von Brunn has a long history of associations with prominent neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. In the 1980s or early 1990s, von Brunn was employed by Noontide Press, a part of the Holocaust denying Institute of Historical Review, which was then run by Willis Carto, one of America’s most prominent anti-Semites.
Von Brunn is the author of the 1999 book, “Kill the Best Gentiles,” a racist and anti-Semitic tome that argues that whites are seeing “today on the world stage a tragedy of enormous proportions: the calculated destruction of the White Race and the incomparable culture it represents. Europe, former fortress of the West, is now over-run by hordes of non-Whites and mongrels.” A raging anti-Semite, von Brunn blames “The Jews” for the destruction of the West. The book is dedicated to prominent neo-Nazis and racists including Revilo Oliver and Wilmot Robertson.
In 2003, AP reported that von Brunn had painted a portrait of Rear Adm. John Crommelin, a raging anti-Semite who was a close associate of neo-Nazi William Pierce, whose book The Turner Diaries inspired Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
On his website, von Brunn also claims that in 1981, while wearing a “London Fog raincoat to conceal his weapons,” he attempted to put the whole Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve under “legal, non-violent citizens-arrest.” He wanted “to bind their hands and persuade them to appear on television.” The website says he was sentenced to 11 years for his actions.
A raging anti-Semitic and racist posting on the website arsenalofhypocrisy.com attributed to “James Von Brunn” says that “the Federal Reserve Act (1913) gave JEWS control of America’s Money.” It also says that “America is a Third-World racial garbage dump–stupid, ignorant, dead-broke, and terminal.” It ends with, “Prepare to die, Whitey.”
Yes, there are metal detectors. There’s a foyer area before you go thru them, and he opened fire as soon as he got in the door. And the guard quickly dispatched him, so security worked like it’s supposed to.
All the more reason to refocus enforcement.
This is the shooter/terrorist’s own website.
The fact that he was only able to shoot one guard suggest to me that he didn’t make it past the door, so the security worked as well as it could under the circumstances.
At least if the shooter survives he’ll be kept out of circulation for the rest of his unnatural life.
Best wishes for the guard and their family.
Just reaping what the inflammatory and outlandish rhetoric of the losing side in the last election has sown: it may be that the Cheney, Boehner, Limbaugh, Gingrich, O’Reilly rantings, combined with anti-government blather, intended to bring out these nut jobs and do what they could not –terrorize the American people into complying with their views, their orders?
Words count. One does not say what these people have being saying every day, many times over, about black people, Jews, Hispanics, Muslim, foreigners, without some psychotic hearing ‘instructions’ to remedy the situation. What a shameful use of media by our Goebbels-inspired GOP, and what terrible complicity our news media have in these crimes.
Actually the perp was confronted right at the door by the security guards one of whom was shot. A second one shot the perp. These guards deserve medals not blacklisting.
Yep.
I heard it was the perp was shot in the head.
Thanks for the info. I hope a full recovery is possible.
Thanks, eCAHN. In all my travels to DC, I hadn’t gotten to this museum yet (last time I was there, it was still under construction).
I’m just completely surprised that apparently alot of folks knew about this nutcase and no one had their eye on him.
Point taken. Withdraw comment re: security.
I don’t remember which one for sure. In these cases, no info is released to the public until the medical procedures are completed, so we’re in an information limbo on that aspect for the moment.
“security guard in grave condition”
presser MSNBC
I think they both were, and are both in critical condition — although the mayor referred to the guard’s condition as “grave condition.”
Jane has an interesting proposition, upstairs
David Neiwert Should Be On TV Talking About the Shooting
As of 3:25p eastern, CNN is only reporting the gunman and a security guard injured, but eCAHN is right – until the situation is stabilized, no real details will be divulged.
I doubt the FBI has sufficient resources to track the legions of gun-toting right-wing nut-jobs out there.
We know that many lefty peace activist groups have been infiltrated. We haven’t heard about any such activity re: white supremacy/ant-government groups. In fact, the MSM and the R Party has encouraged the formation of such groups.
Calls for secession. Calls for the formation of anti-tax anti-(big)government tea baggers. These wackos are encouraged by the media and the R Party. Anti-abortion, forced birth, forced religion groups abound. All encouraged by media and the right wing.
You must take visit the Holocaust Museum. It’s the most emotionally gripping experience.
What should they have done about the perp? They can’t follow every nutcase all the time. And given his advanced age, he wouldn’t be on the top of my list of dangerous people, as he had lived a long life without acting on his words. (Although I do wonder if dementia played a role.)
Oh. I really want to go – just haven’t been through DC unless it’s been through Reagan airport with a tight connection. I used to spend a lot of time in the Smithsonian associated museums when my late uncle was a docent after retiring from the State department.
This quote from above, ‘They also report that in 1981 he walked in to the Federal Reserve in D.C. with weapons, a handgun and sawed off shotgun, and threatened to take hostages because of high interest rates — apparently thinking he was making a citizen’s arrest. He was captured and convicted.’, says to me he was plenty dangerous and had acted on his words in the past. Yes, it might’ve been a long time ago, but they follow others at least as closely for far less.
One of the only groups that aggressively, a successfully, pursues the dismantling of extremist groups in the US is SPLC. Morris Dees is a badass.
SPLC legal Action
http://www.splcenter.org/legal/legal.jsp
I just found his version of the 1981 Fed incident:
http://www.arsenalofhypocrisy.com/blog/?p=544
Well, Von Brunn’s improved his health care.
Unlike the remainder of us.
Another view of the SPLC and Morris Dees:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05152009.html
Those clowns at Counterpunch are nothing but charming.
there’s someone who has really made a difference.
And a view it is.
Fox is reporting the guard has died :(
Praying for his family. Anyone who worked at the Holocaust museum was a hero in my book.
Hi becca, I’ve only been to DC once and that was a couple of years ago. After all the embassy attacks and 9/11, security is evident everywhere you go. Concrete planters in front of govt. buildings and metal detectors at museums. In some places you cannot bring in your backpack or purse, you must check it or not bring one. You must have ID, etc etc etc. For the WH tour we had to submit our names and SS# in advance and could not carry anything but our ID (to be checked again at the site). Cars cannot come very close to the WH any more for obvious reasons.
amen.
Oh, in addition, if you are allowed to bring in your backpack or purse, it is usually scanned like at an airport. The place is crawling with security. Likewise at the Holocaust museum.
Really a sad thing.
That’s horrible.
For as many nutcases as are out there, dosido, I have no problem with any of it. It was a wonderful world where people could move freely through our nation’s capital, but those days are gone.
I was at the Hirshhorn Museum a couple weeks ago and observed that the courtyard adjacent to the sole entrance, located on the Independence Ave side, is covered by at least 4 guards during the midday period, at least. I don’t know if that’s typical for museums in the area, but I expect it’s the same or similar. Washington became a particularly ugly place during the Bush II tenure, with crudely constructed barriers every which way. And yet they say people don’t lock their doors in Canada.
God help me, I have read those first six chapters of that book the murderer wrote and the right-wing currents running through his thought are as obvious as day.
No doubt the man was a loony, but he was a right-wing loony.
a right-wing loony domestic terrorist
Please, let’s not use the “terrorist” monicker. It should be retired. This guy is a criminal. His ideas, if you choose to call them that, should not come into it as a matter of law. They are as constitutionally protected as anyone’s. They should be dealt with as bad ideas always shouldbe: by rational debate, followed by ridicule and public humiliation.
Instead, let’s look at the real question: where, when, and how did he get the gun? He’s a felon. There are probably good reasons to wonder about his mental health. So where did the gun come from? Track it down and crucify everyone who enabled this crime. Include the turncoat Semicrat s that have systematically betrayed those of us that support sensible gun-control.
I, for one, will never forget the day that colleagues of mine had to leave work to look for their children at Columbine High School. Lot’s of others have.
Guns don’t kill people. Idiots that have them do. Criminals that have them do. Nutcase that have them do. And indirectly, the creeps that sell the guns and undermine the laws do.