[Vision2020] Fwd: CNN - Holocaust museum shooting suspect to be charged with murder

[Joe Campbell]

Is right wing American terrorism on the rise?

Joe

>> Holocaust museum shooting suspect to be charged with murder
>>
>>
>>
>> The suspected gunman in the fatal shooting of a security guard at  
>> the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will be charged with murder,  
>> authorities announced Thursday.
>>
>> James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist known for racist  
>> and anti-Semitic writings, also will face charges of possession of  
>> a firearm at a federal facility, said Chief Cathy Lanier of the  
>> District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department.
>>
>> Lanier said Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns was trying to help the man  
>> arriving at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum around 12:40 p.m.  
>> Wednesday by opening the door for him. The man then raised a rifle  
>> and killed him.
>>
>> The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington remained closed  
>> Thursday, its flags lowered to half-staff in tribute to Johns.
>>
>> Officials said after von Brunn entered the crowded and solemn  
>> Holocaust museum and shot Johns, guards returned fire and wounded  
>> him. Von Brunn is in the hospital in critical condition, officials  
>> said.
>>
>> Sirens blared as emergency vehicles converged on the area, which is  
>> near the Washington Monument and other popular tourist attractions.  
>> The museum was full at the time, with a "couple of thousand" people  
>> inside, said William Parsons, chief of staff at the museum.
>>
>> A six-year veteran of the museum's security staff, Johns "died  
>> heroically in the line of duty," said Sara Bloomfield, director of  
>> the museum.
>>
>> "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johns' family," the  
>> museum said.
>>
>> Von Brunn is a Holocaust denier, well-known to human rights groups  
>> for decades, who created an anti-Semitic Web site called "The Holy  
>> Western Empire." The Southern Poverty Law Center, which focuses on  
>> human rights, said von Brunn has "an extremely long history with  
>> neo-Nazis and white supremacists."
>>
>> He has repeatedly claimed "The Diary of Anne Frank," an iconic  
>> diary written by a teenage girl who was hiding from Nazis with her  
>> family, was a hoax. The guard died on the day the museum was to  
>> stage a play based on Anne Frank and two days before what would  
>> have been her 80th birthday.
>>
>> Investigators found a notebook in the suspect's car listing other  
>> locations in Washington that he might have considered as targets, a  
>> federal official told CNN.
>>
>> Von Brunn served six years in prison for trying in 1981 to kidnap  
>> Federal Reserve Board members because of high interest rates. He  
>> blamed his prison term on a "Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys" and  
>> "a Jew judge," he said on his Web site, "Holy Western Empire."
>>
>> One of many questions is whether von Brunn, as a convicted felon,  
>> should have turned in his weapons or been barred from owning them.
>>
>> The U.S. Park Police has asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,  
>> Firearms and Explosives to trace the firearm, an effort that is  
>> expected to provide its original sale and ownership.
>>
>> An FBI official said there was no warning or threat against the  
>> museum.
>>
>> Both Johns and von Brunn were taken to George Washington University  
>> Hospital, said D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty. Johns died at the hospital.  
>> Von Brunn was in critical condition, Fenty said.
>>
>> Johns, 39, was a resident of Temple Hills, Maryland, according to a  
>> statement issued by Wackenhut Services Inc., which has provided  
>> security services at the museum since 2002.
>>
>> "Obviously there are no words to express our grief and shock over  
>> the horrific event that took place at this museum today,"  
>> Bloomfield, the museum director, said.
>>
>> The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said von  
>> Brunn has "an extremely long history with neo-Nazis and white  
>> supremacists."
>>
>> Witnesses to the shooting described blood on the floor and chaos  
>> within the museum's halls.
>>
>> Visitor Maria Hernandez told CNN she heard five shots and saw the  
>> wounded security guard.
>>
>> "It was definitely a security guard; he was down bleeding on the  
>> floor," said Hernandez, 19. "He was face down. His back ... blood  
>> was coming out."
>>
>> Sirens blared as emergency vehicles converged on the area, which is  
>> near the Washington Monument and other popular tourist attractions.  
>> The museum was full at the time, with a "couple of thousand" people  
>> inside, said William Parsons, chief of staff at the museum.
>>
>> "Never take your guard force and security people for granted," he  
>> said. "They did exactly what they were supposed to do to protect  
>> people in the museum."
>>
>> Dave Pearson, a sixth-grade teacher in the Washington area, said he  
>> was on the museum's fourth floor when he heard a loud noise.
>>
>> "At the time, we're visiting and all of a sudden there's like a  
>> boom, and all of a sudden they told us to stop where we're at," he  
>> told CNN. "Only thing we heard was a boom, and that was it."
>>
>> The shooting sent shock waves throughout the nation's capital and  
>> elsewhere.
>>
>> "I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting at the U.S.  
>> Holocaust Memorial Museum," said President Obama, who just days  
>> earlier had spoken emotionally about the Holocaust when he visited  
>> Buchenwald, a former Nazi concentration camp with Holocaust  
>> survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.
>>
>> "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant  
>> against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms," Obama said  
>> Wednesday. "No American institution is more important to this  
>> effort than the Holocaust museum, and no act of violence will  
>> diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building  
>> a more peaceful and tolerant world."
>>
>> Israel issued a statement through its embassy, expressing sadness  
>> and condemning the attack.
>>
>> The Anti-Defamation League said the shooting "reminds us in the  
>> starkest way where the spread of hatred can lead."
>>
>> Happening "at the very place that was created to remember and teach  
>> about evil in the world," the attack "is an immediate reminder that  
>> words of hate matter, that we can never afford to ignore hate  
>> because words of hate can easily become acts of hate, no matter the  
>> place, no matter the age of the hatemonger."
>>
>> The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned "this apparent  
>> bias-motivated attack" and said it 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 canceled a performance scheduled for Wednesday night of  
>> a play about racism and anti-Semitism, based on a fictional meeting  
>> between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, the teenage victim of a racist  
>> killing in the United States.
>>
>> Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee,  
>> were among those planning to attend the play, which was written by  
>> Janet Langhart Cohen, the wife of former Defense Secretary and U.S.  
>> Sen. William Cohen.
>>
>> Langhart Cohen told CNN that Anne Frank's young life was ended by  
>> people filled with hate. She said it was hard to see that same hate  
>> manifest itself at this place of remembrance.
>>
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