Washington - A lone gunman with believed connections to
white supremacist groups opened fire in the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington on Wednesday, killing a museum guard.
Museum officials identified the guard as Officer Stephen Tyrone
Johns, who had worked at the museum for six years.
City and law enforcement authorities told reporters they could not
confirm the gunman's identity or any connections to anti-Semitic
groups, but media reports said he was believed to be known as white
supremacist James W von Brunn.
The shooting 'reminds us that we must remain vigilant against
anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms,' US President Barack
Obama said in a statement.
'No American institution is more important to this effort than the
Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our
determination to honour those who were lost by building a more
peaceful and tolerant world,' he said.
The armed man carrying a long rifle entered the museum just blocks
from the National Mall and Washington Monument shortly before 1 pm
(1700 GMT) and immediately fired at armed security guards, Washington
Police Chief Cathy Lanier told reporters.
Two security guards returned fire and Johns and the gunman were
wounded. Local media reports said a third person was hit by glass but
the extent of those injuries are unknown.
The museum will be closed Thursday and flags will be flown at
half-mast in Johns' honor.
The museum is normally heavily guarded, with guards both inside
and outside and metal detectors to screen visitors.
Security director Joseph Rosboschil said the museum receives
occasional threats but there had been 'nothing significant of late.'
Robsboschil also said the museum had more security measures than
other Washington museums.
Sara J Bloomfield, director of the museum, said this apparent act
of intolerance and hatred was 'even more reason for this museum to
exist.'
Von Brunn has written numerous anti-Semitic articles posted
online, including a book called Kill the Best Gentiles, which he
calls 'a new hard-hitting expose of the Jewish conspiracy to destroy
the white gene pool.'
Von Brunn, on a website, claims to have served with the US
military in World War II, worked for a New York advertising agency
and belong to Mensa, the high-IQ society.
The alleged gunman was in serious condition at a nearby hospital,
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said.
Tourist Mark Lippert who was visiting the museum told the German
Press Agency dpa that he heard several loud pops ring out while he
was in a nearby room inside the building.
He and his fiancee visiting from Spring Valley, Illinois, saw
children running into the exhibit hall and could tell from the looks
on their faces that something was wrong, he said. Lippert pushed the
emergency exit, which took several seconds to open.
'It was the longest 15 seconds of my life,' he said.
Other tourists who were in the museum told dpa they were kept
inside an exhibit by guards where they took shelter for about 20
minutes before leaving through the museum's emergency exit.
Another group hid inside the museum's theatre for nearly an hour,
where a Holocaust survivor was preparing to a give a speech.
Charles Towater, 73, of Tampa, Florida, said he saw a body lying
on the pavement outside the entrance as he approached the museum just
before police arrived.
Mayor Fenty stressed the gunman appeared to have acted alone and
that there were no threats received by the museum prior to the
incident.
'This is an extremely isolated incident,' he said, noting that the
security guards reacted just as they were trained to do.
'In these days ... you never know when someone is going to grab a
gun and use it in an inappropriate way.'
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil
liberties and advocacy group, said in a statement that it condemned
'this apparent bias-motivated attack' and stands with the 'Jewish
community and with Americans of all faiths in repudiating the kind of
hatred and intolerance that can lead to such disturbing incidents.'
The museum, funded by both private and government money, has had
nearly 30 million visitors since its dedication in 1993 and works to
increase awareness not only of the Holocaust but of contemporary
humanitarian issues such as the genocide in Darfur.
USA
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