US museum shooter son slams father's 'cowardice'
AFP/File – Flowers are left outside the US Holocaust Museum, after a security
guard was killed by a white supremacist …
Fri Jun 12, 5:43 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The son of white supremacist James von Brunn, who shot a
guard at the entrance of Washington's Holocaust museum this week, slammed the
"cowardice" of his father's actions on Friday.
"My father's actions are unforgivable," Erik von Brunn, 32, said in a statement
to ABC News. "I do not expect, nor will I accept forgiveness for what he has
done," he said.
Erik's 88-year-old father reached the entrance of the Holocaust Memorial Museum
in the US capital on Wednesday, raised a .22 caliber rifle and fatally shot
African-American museum guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, in the chest.
Security guards returned fire, shot von Brunn and prevented him from entering.
Von Brunn will face murder charges for the crime, officials have said.
"I cannot express enough how deeply sorry I am it was Mr Johns, and not my
father who lost their life," the shooter's Florida-based son said.
Erik von Brunn said his father's hatred for racial minorities and Jews
destroyed his family, and resulted in the divorce between him and Erik's mother.
"My father's beliefs have been a constant source of verbal and mental abuse my
family has had to suffer with for many years," he wrote in the statement.
"His views consumed him, and in doing so, not only destroyed his life, but
destroyed our family and ruined our lives as well.
"Now, it is not only my families lives that are in shambles, but those who were
directly affected by his actions; especially the family of Mr Johns, who
bravely sacrificed his life to stop my father."
If convicted, James von Brunn faces life in prison without parole and could
face the death penalty.
A search of the shooter's car left in the street outside the museum Wednesday
turned up a notebook of handwritten anti-Semitic rants denouncing President
Barack Obama as a Jewish puppet.
"The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew
owners tell him to do," said one of the notes, which was signed James W. Von
Brunn, according to an FBI affidavit.
Erik von Brunn had blunt words for racists and anti-semites who idolize his
father's actions.
"For the extremists who believe my father is a hero: it is imperative you
understand what he did was an act of cowardice," he said.
"To physically force your beliefs onto others with violence is not brave, but
bullying. Doing so only serves to prove how weak those beliefs are. It is
simply desperation, reminiscent of a temper tantrum when a child cannot get his
way
