Gunman at U.S. Holocaust Museum is a Neonazi

Neo-Nazi opens fire at U.S. Holocaust Museum
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

An elderly white supremacist opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum early Wednesday afternoon, gravely wounding a security guard before two other officers returned fire.

 

The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized. Police named the gunman as James Von Brunn, an 89-year-old linked a Web site advocating
anti-government and anti-Jewish sentiments. A law enforcement official said Von Brunn's vehicle was found near the Washington, D.C. museum and tested for explosives.

 

The assailant was in critical condition, said Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty. Police chief Kathy Lanier said the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

 

Fire department spokesman Alan Etter told CNN a third person was hurt after being cut by broken glass.

 

The museum normally has a heavy security presence with guards positioned both inside and outside. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and bags are screened.

 

It was not immediately known whether the gunman made it through the detectors before opening fire. He was engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door, Police chief Lanier said.

 

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.

 

Roads surrounding the museum were closed just after the attack.

 

Obama 'saddened' by Holocaust museum attack

 

U.S. President Barack Obama said immediately following the incident that he was saddened by the attack and concerned for the health of the wounded guard.

 

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters he gave Obama the facts as they were known at the time, shortly after shots were fired. The White House is receiving regular updates from the FBI, Homeland Security Council and the Situation Room, said Gibbs.

 

The Embassy of Israel release a statement following the incident saying it was "shocked and saddened by today's shooting incident at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The Embassy of Israel condemns this attack and is closely following the situation."

 

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:

 

"That today's shooting at the United States Holocaust Museum should take place at a site expressly created to teach the world about the destruction and devastation brought about by human evil deepens the resonance of this terrible act."

 

Washington Mayor Fenty called the attack "an extremely isolated incident."

 

"In these days and times you never know when someone is going to grab a gun and use it in an inappropriate way as was done today," he said.

 

Stephanie Geraghty, 28, who had been visiting the museum, said the shooter appeared to be a white male carrying a silver gun.

 

"I heard the first shot, it sounded like something had been dropped from the upper stories down," she told Reuters. "The next two came really fast - bam bam. At that point everyone took off, chaos, running."

 

A woman whose teenaged daughter was visiting the museum at the time of the shooting said that the children heard several gunshots before they were evacuated from the building.

 

Sandy Perkins says her daughter, Abigail, called her shortly after the shooting and said some of her friends were very shaken, but otherwise were fine.

 

The teens did not see where the shots were coming from before they were safely evacuated to buses outside the museum.

 

Police search Von Brunn's home in wake of shooting

 

Von Brunn being investigated as the prime suspect in the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, according to unnamed law enforcement agents, but officials have declined to publicly confirm him as their suspect.

 

According to Joseph Persichini, assistant director in charge of the Washington FBI field office, authorities have dispatched people to a suspect's home to check his computer. He said they are investigating this as a possible hate crime or domestic terrorism.

 

Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book called Kill the Best Gentile.

 

In 1983, Von Brunn was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off 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.

 

On his Web site, Von Brunn says he was a PT boat captain in the U.S. Navy
Reserves during World War II.