Updated: Gunman opens fire in Holocaust Museum, killing a guard

An elderly gunman opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday and was wounded after shooting a guard, who later died at a local hospital.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - Shortly before 1:00pm on Wednesday an elderly man with a rifle entered the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and exchanged fire with security guards.

He shot one guard before being wounded himself. Both were taken to George Washington University Hospital with life-threatening injuries. A third unidentified person sustained minor injuries.
The guard, Stephen Tyrone Jones, died later, according to officials .

"There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events," the museum said in a statement.

The gunman has been identified as James Wenneker von Brunn, 88, from the Annapolis area on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He had been previously linked with white supremacist groups. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, however, would not confirm the identity at that time.

According to a statement from Chief, the suspect immediately opened fire as he entered the museum. The FBI stated that no reports of threats against the museum had been received.

The man "came into the entrance and immediately opened fire, striking one security guard," D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty stated at a news conference later in the afternoon. "There was gunfire returned; the gunman was hit."

According to the Washington Post, a police source indicated that the gunman possessed a notebook listing over 100 targets. Police and bomb-sniffing dogs have been dispatched.

This was not the first time police have dealt with the suspect. ABC News reported that von Brunn described himself as "an artist and author who lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore" on the website www.holywesternempire.org.

He also described himself as a Midwesterner, a PT boat captain in World War II as well as an ad executive and film producer in New York City.

He claimed to be a member of Mensa and has six chapters posted on the website from a manuscript he authored, "Tob Shebbe Goyim Harog," which translates as "To Kill the Best Gentiles!" The book claims to outline a Jewish plot against society.

He also summarized his activities in 1981 to "place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizen's arrest."

A man by the same name had entered the building where the board of governors was meeting in 1981 with a camera and with weapons hidden under his trench coat. He was arrested and subsequently convicted of this crime in 1983 in D.C. Superior Court. Von Brunn maintained, on the website, that he unjustly received an 11-year jail sentence, of which he served 6.5 years.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is a national tribute to the 6 million Jews killed by Nazis in the Holocaust. Located near the National Mall, the museum was closed after the shooting and will remain closed on Thursday in honor of the guard who died.

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