UPDATED: A shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. early Wednesday afternoon claimed the life of a security police officer. Metropolitan Police indicate that a gunman entered the museum at 12:50 p.m. with a long gun and fatally wounded the officer. Two other security officers returned fire, hitting the gunman.
The shooting victim, identified as 39-year-old Stephen Tyrone Johns of Temple Hills, Md., was taken to George Washington University Hospital in grave condition and subsequently died from his injuries. The suspect was taken to the same hospital in critical condition.
CBS news and other national news outlets indicate that the alleged gunman is an 88-year-old white supremacist from Annapolis, Maryland named James W. von Brunn. A quick Google search indicates that Von Brunn is the author of a book called "Kill the Best Gentiles," an apparently bizarre supremacist read.
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The Holocaust Museum was established in 1993 as an effort to educate people about genocide and mass hatred, to inspire people to stand against these horrors that still plague our world. The fact that one agent of modern-day hatred chose to plague such a sacrosanct place and kill an innocent man is not simply saddening, it is an outrage and a travesty.
______________________Labels: crime, holocaust museum, southwest d.c., washington d.c.
