Another tragic killing.

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Hayabusa Rider

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WASHINGTON -- A rifle-toting 88-year-old man with a history of anti-Semitism allegedly entered the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday and opened fire, fatally wounding a security officer before he was shot and severely wounded as terrified tourists scurried for cover.

Law enforcement officials identified the alleged gunman as James von Brunn, who lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore, describes himself as a World War II PT boat captain and trumpets his ties to hate groups on his Web site.

Von Brunn was jailed for scheming in 1981 to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board to retaliate for high interest rates. He was caught on that institution's second floor with a hunting knife, a revolver and a sawed-off shotgun. His Web site, "Holy Western Empire" (www.holywesternempire.org/page2.html), is rife with anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The wounded suspect and guard Stephen Tyrone Johns were rushed by ambulance to the nearby George Washington University Hospital, where Johns was pronounced dead within hours. Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said that von Brunn was in critical condition.

At the White House, chief spokesman Robert Gibbs said that President Barack Obama was "saddened" by the shootings.

The museum said in a statement that the slain officer, who'd worked at the museum for six years, "died heroically in the line of duty today. There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johns' family."

The museum said it would close Thursday and fly flags at half-staff in Johns' memory.

The attack came during Washington's peak tourist season at the museum, a memorial to 6 million Jews exterminated during the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. The museum, which opened in 1993 at the edge of Washington's National Mall, was teeming at its capacity of about 2,000 visitors when the gunman strode into the main entrance at about 12:50 p.m., authorities said.

Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said, "It appears that the gunman entered alone," carrying "a long rifle that was visible." He "was engaged immediately," she said.

Lanier said that an off-duty police officer who was within a block of the museum heard the gunfire and rushed to assist the U.S. Park Police.

Sgt. David Schlosser, a spokesman for the Park Police, said that at least two security guards returned fire, including Johns.

Tourists, including small children, witnessed the security guard lying in a pool of blood on the main floor.

"There was blood everywhere," one museum visitor, identified only as "Maria," told CNN. "I saw a lot of blood on the floor. ... There was just chaos everywhere."

Dave Unruh, a Sedgwick County commissioner in Kansas, was vacationing with his family, strolling through the museum's first floor, when they heard the first gunshot.

"It was followed by four or five other shots," Unruh said. "Right away, somebody said, 'Hit the floor. Hit the floor.' We did. We kind of instinctively knew what was going on. We were all pretty frightened."

"You know, you go through security, metal detectors and have bags checked," he said. "This is the Holocaust museum. You think, why do they need the security? And then somebody does something like this."

Rebecca McDowell, 10, and her 5-year-old sister, Lydia, of Smith Center, Kan., were in a first-floor exhibit known as "Daniel's Story," accompanied by their grandmother, when the shots rang out.

"It was scary, and I was crying," Rebecca said. "I was trying to be strong, so Lydia wouldn't get scared. I really didn't know what happened."

The girls' grandmother, Barbara Hampson, 60, of Fresno, Calif., said she and the girls were quickly herded to the museum's basement with about 40 others, where they were held until police had matters under control.

Mark Lippert, of Spring Valley, Ill., was in the same first-floor exhibit with his bride-to-be.

"I heard four pops and I looked at my fiancee and said, 'That sounded like gunshots,' but thought, 'No, that can't be.' But then I saw kids running towards me, and the look on their faces was pure fear."

Lippert said he tried to get out of the building, but got stuck by an emergency door, because he didn't realize he had to hold a mechanism for 15 seconds to exit.

"That was the real scary part, when we got the door opened and looked back at people's faces and they were really scared."

The incident raised concerns that it could incite hate groups to target the museum further, given that scores of white supremacy and anti-Semitic groups across the United States routinely express hate toward Jews. The museum hasn't previously been the scene of violence.

Washington police immediately evacuated the building and cordoned off surrounding streets. A helicopter hovered overhead and dozens of squad cars lined 14th Street.

Joseph Persichini, the chief of the FBI's Washington Field Office, said the bureau had no warning of any attack on the museum.

"We have a lot of work to do right now," Persichini said.

Attorney General Eric Holder and members of Congress were due to attend an event at the museum Wednesday night, but there was no indication that the attack was linked to that event.

The attack was the second at a heavily secured Washington tourist attraction in which an armed assailant has slain a security officer. In 1998, a gunman with a history of mental illness entered the U.S. Capitol and opened fire during security screening, making it as far as the office of then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and killing a guard before he was wounded and subdued.

The Holocaust museum's chief of staff, Bill Parsons, drew a common lesson from the latest incident: "Never take your guard force and your security people for granted. They did exactly what they were supposed to do to protect people at the museum."

(Erika Bolstad and Jonathan S. Landay in Washington and Beccy Tanner of The Wichita Eagle in Wichita, Kan., contributed to this report.)

RIP
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Perknose
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Possessed Freak

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Does RIP count as commentary?

[edit]I heard about this about 20 minutes ago, it is a hideous act and I am glad this person was killed on the scene. We do not need the media circus that could have happened if this old man lived.
 

Harvey

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Originally posted by: jpeyton

One murdered?

The other was the shooter.

This is an interesting and frightening counterpoint to the right wingnuts fury over Department of Homeland Security head, Janet Napolitano's report warning of the dangers from rightwing extremism. :roll:

Napolitano apologized in response to the protests. I'm afraid she was right. :(
 

Hayabusa Rider

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My bad. One murdered, one who will be very lucky if there is indeed no God.

 

Hayabusa Rider

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Harvey, I didn't mean for this tragedy to be used by one side or the other. I can find left wing eco-terrorists as well.

This is a horrific event by a reprehensible person. He was beyond left or right. He was Nemesis, someone who decided that Jews were worth killing. As you know I had the great good fortune to have been "adopted" by Jewish families early in my school days. I feel great sadness that someone would act this way and I'd rather not see this being used to get digs in. I can't stop people from doing so, but I think it's in bad taste.
 

OCGuy

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Originally posted by: Harvey

This is an interesting and frightening counterpoint to the right wingnuts fury over Department of Homeland Security head, Janet Napolitano's report warning of the dangers from rightwing extremism. :roll:

Napolitano apologized in response to the protests. I'm afraid she was right. :(

Go into that thread and explain how this has anything to do with that report. The shooter in this case has been a white-power asshole for years.


As for the victim:
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WHAMPOM

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Feb 28, 2006
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Originally posted by: jpeyton
One murdered?

And at the Holocost Museum, yet. When will the violins stop!!

edit; this is a dig! or rather a :roll:.
 

Moonbeam

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Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
My bad. One murdered, one who will be very lucky if there is indeed no God.

Rest assured, he lived 80+ years in hell.
 

Harvey

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Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider

Harvey, I didn't mean for this tragedy to be used by one side or the other. I can find left wing eco-terrorists as well.

Absolutely. It's just that THIS murder was by a right wing nut job, as was the murder, last week, of Dr. George Tiller following years of invectives against him across the wingnut media. Scott Roeder, the whack job who killed Tiller, has been closely tied to anti-abortion fundamentalist wingnuts who openly advocate violicene and have continued to voice approval of his crime. Meanwhile, Roeder has been busy calling the media to proclaim that more such was planned around the nation for as long as abortion remains legal.

There's no excuse for such blind hatered from any side of any issue and less for violence in the name of that hate. THIS hate and these murders came from rightwingnuts, and it's far too close to what Napolitano warned about to ignore.
 

Kadarin

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Nov 23, 2001
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Hopefully the shooter was severely wounded in some horrible fashion that will leave him maimed, disfigured, and in agony for the rest of his life.
 

LumbergTech

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Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
My bad. One murdered, one who will be very lucky if there is indeed no God.

Rest assured, he lived 80+ years in hell.

Only get one shot, was one hell of a waste for him....Shit like this might not be easy to relate to but I try to use it as a reminder to reflect upon myself and attempt ensure I won't regret my choices in the end
 

kylebisme

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Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
He was beyond left or right.
He was a white supremacist, which is a subset of the right wing ideal of preserving the traditional social order. Granted, there are many right wingers who have nothing to do with such bigotry and this guy's actions should not be considered any reflection on the right as a whole, but he was a textbook example of a far-right nutcase all the same.
 

EndGame

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Interesting how he is being labeled "Far right" here. With just a bit of research (google is your friend) you can find that he considered himself an "American Nazi" or "White Supremist", Did not like Reagan, or either Bush but liked Clinton, Was a "9/11 Truther", Was against the war in Iraq and blamed the current economic crisis completely on the Republicans and Geaorge Bush. His hatred of Jews was the one trait that is evident by both far right and far left groups........
 
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