Hey Tony you know this guy, he's from the Eastern Shore. larry http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061001768.html?hpid=topnews
2 Shot at Holocaust Museum By Debbi Wilgoren and William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, June 10, 2009 3:38 PM A gunman armed with a rifle walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington today and opened fire on a security guard before being shot and seriously wounded by two guards, authorities said. The security guard and the gunman were both transported to George Washington University Hospital with serious injuries, police said. A hospital spokesperson declined to release information on the condition of the two. A third person sustained minor injuries in the shooting, according to police. A law enforcement source identified the gunman as James W. von Brunn, 88, who is known to authorities as a white supremacist. On a Web site he apparently maintains extolling a "Holy Western Empire," von Brunn says he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, worked for 20 years as an advertising executive and film producer in New York and then became "an artist and author" living on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Sgt. David Schlosser, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said the security guard and the gunman were the only two persons who were hit by gunshots. He said the museum has been "completely secured and evacuated." A spokesman for the museum, Andy Hollinger, said in a statement that after the gunman opened fire, "two Museum security officers returned fire hitting the assailant." Police initially identified the attacker's weapon as a shotgun, but D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier later said it appeared to be a rifle. The gunman "came into the entrance and immediately opened fire, striking one security guard," D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said. "There was gunfire returned; the gunman was hit." Fenty said the gunman is in critical condition and the wounded security guard is in grave condition. The guard's name is not being released, he said. Fenty called the shooting "an extremely isolated incident" and said the security guards "performed exceptionally well and behaved exactly as they were supposed to." He praised "the heroism of the security guards." Lanier said the assailant appeared to be "a lone gunman who entered the museum and opened fire with what appears to be a rifle at this point." She said law enforcement authorities have not confirmed the identity of the gunman, despite media reports that he is a white supremacist from Annapolis. The assailant's weapon was visible as he entered the museum, Lanier said. "Immediately as he entered the front doors of the museum, he raised the rifle and started shooting," she said. The second he stepped into the building, he began firing." Police have used bomb-sniffing dogs to sweep the museum and the area around it as a routine precaution, Lanier said. An off-duty D.C. police officer who was nearby responded to the museum, along with U.S. Park Police who were patrolling in the area, officials said. They helped the victim until medical crews arrived. A spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services Inc., confirmed that the company provides security for the museum. According to the company's Web site, Wackenhut is the U.S. government's "largest contractor for professional security services." The company has more than 8,000 employees in the United States and abroad. In the National Capital Region, it has 1,000 employees and 10 security contracts. In a short biography on a white supremacist Web site he created, holywesternempire.com, von Brunn gave his birth year as 1920 and wrote that held a journalism degree from a "mid-Western university." He boasted in the Web biography and on a Wikipedia page of an escapade in which he attempted to take over the Federal Reserve on Dec. 7, 1981, holding the Board of Governors "under citizens arrest" and charging them with treason. He was captured, tried and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. He blamed a "Negro jury," "Jew/Negro attorneys" and "a Jew judge" for his conviction. Upon his release after serving 6 1/2 years in prison, von Brunn said he joined Mensa, the society for people who score in the top 2 percent of a standardized intelligence test. An executive assistant at Mensa, Joy Martin, confirmed that von Brunn was a member for a year starting on April 2, 1987. But he was dropped from the membership rolls in 1988 for failing to pay dues. According to the biography, Von Brunn captained a PT Boat in World War II and earned "four battle stars." That claim could not be immediately substantiated. A woman who opened the door at von Brunn's apartment, in a neighborhood outside downtown Annapolis, declined to comment. Neighbors, who asked that they not be identified, said they recently invited von Brunn to their home for a drink and that he unexpectedly brought up his belief that the Holocaust did not occur. "He didn't believe the Holocaust existed. It was just off the wall," said one of the neighbors. The shooting was reported to police at 12:52 p.m., and officers rushed to the scene just south of Independence Ave. bordering the Mall. Scores of police and emergency vehicles converged on the scene, blocking 14th Street, a major artery between downtown Washington and the Virginia suburbs. Police closed the area around the museum. They said they were trying to reopen 14th Street to traffic as soon as possible. One witness, Dave Unruh, of Wichita, Kan., said he was waiting to enter the museum when he heard one gunshot, then a sequence of four or five gunshots. He said he then heard someone scream, "Hit the floor!" He and his wife, Karen, and their two teenage grandchildren dropped to the floor and were subsequently herded out of the building by authorities. Unruh called the experience "intensely, extremely frightening." By 1 p.m., the street in front of the museum was blocked by a museum police officer. A group of schoolchildren was rushed onto a chartered luxury coach and the bus driver struggled to pull away from the block. Kimberly Frank, 44, of Chicago, said she was coming out of the museum with her 14-year-old son Tyler when "we heard shots, pretty consecutive, within seconds." "We were on the lower level, just getting ready to exit," Frank said. "I was thinking about what I'd just experienced through the whole memorial. I wasn't thinking too much of it till I came outside and saw all the people running around." Schlosser, the Park Police spokesman, said an unidentified man walked into the museum at about 12:50 p.m. with a "long gun." He said he did not know whether the gunman was inside or outside the museum's metal detectors when he was confronted by a security guard. That guard and at least one other security guard fired shots, and the gunman also fired at the guards, Schlosser said. A US. Park Police SWAT team then swarmed into the building and carried out a search for anyone else who may have been involved, Schlosser said. He said the gunman apparently acted alone. Trevor Ezelo, 18, from Arizona, said: "Basically we were in the propaganda exhibit, walking around, and all of a sudden we heard five shots. We all started looking around. We didn't even think it was gunshots. We thought it was something that fell over. Then a security guard ran in, saying, 'Move back into the exhibit!'" Then, Ezelo said, "some lady ran in crying, and we all knew something was wrong." In a statement, William Parsons, the museum's chief of staff, said all staff and visitors were safe. "One of our guards was shot and has been taken to the hospital," he said. "The suspect who committed the shooting was shot by our guards and has been taken to the hospital." He asked employees to remain in their offices until police finished conducting a sweep of the museum. "We expect the Museum to be open tomorrow," Parsons said. Since it opened nearly two decades ago, the Holocaust museum has become a top attraction for school groups and tourists from across the nation. Groups of various races and ethnic backgrounds converge on the striking stone building daily to tour exhibits that document, in chilling detail, the extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of other people by Germany's Nazi regime during World War II. The museum also has played an active role in documenting and decrying what it describes as more recent attempts at genocide, including conflicts in Darfur and Bosnia. Law enforcement officials attend sensitivity training programs there, and elderly Holocaust survivors have come to the facility -- children and grandchildren in tow -- for emotional reunions that attest to the failure of the Nazis to achieve their goal. About 400 employees and 300 volunteers work at the museum, which is both publicly and privately funded. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has sent members of its National Capital Response Squad, including agents and team members on SWAT, Evidence Recovery, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, to provide on scene support," said John Perren, the Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office's Counterterrorism Division. "The situation is fluid and therefore no other statements will be made at this time." In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: "We condemn this apparent bias-motivated attack and stand 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." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:298235 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
