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A gunman, said by authorities to have
a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past, stepped inside a
crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, opened fire
with a rifle and fatally wounded a security guard before being shot
by other officers.


      The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving
behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law
enforcement and expressions of shock from the Israeli government
and a prominent Muslim organization.


      D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman was "engaged by
security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle.


"The second he stepped into the building he began firing."

      Law enforcement officials said James Von Brunn, 88, a white
supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting, and a second
official said the elderly man's car was found near the museum and
tested for explosives. 


They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying
they were not authorized to discuss the investigation just
beginning.


      Museum officials identified the dead guard as Stephen T. Johns,
a six-year veteran of the facility. In an e-mail, director Sara
Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty."

 Von Brunn, 88, has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site called 

 and wrote a book
titled "Kill the Best Gentiles."


      In 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the
Federal Reserve Board and served more than six years in prison. He
was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was
meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. 


At the
time, police said Von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage
because of high interest rates and the nation's economic
difficulties.

      Writings attributed to Von Brunn on the Internet say the
Holocaust was a hoax and decry a Jewish conspiracy to "destroy the
white gene pool."


      "At Auschwitz the 'Holocaust' myth became Reality, and Germany,
cultural gem of the West, became a pariah among world nations," it
says.


      The museum, which opened in 1993 and has drawn nearly 30 million
visitors, houses exhibits and records relating to the Holocaust of
more than a half century ago in which more than six million Jews
died at the hands of Nazis. 


Its Web site says the museum "teaches
millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide."

A museum official said a couple of thousand people were inside the facility when the shooting broke out, including many school-age children on field trips. 

A group of about 40 students and chaperones from Robbinsdale Middle School were at the museum at the time of the shooting, according to the Robbinsdale school district. 

The students were on another floor of the museum, and they were all evacuated safely. 
      
    
The museum is located across the street from the National Mall, and
within sight of the Washington Monument. 

The museum, which draws
about 1.7 million visitors each year, was closed for the day after
the shooting, and nearby streets were cordoned off by police.


Surrounding roads were closed at least temporarily and blocked off
with yellow tape. Police cars and officers on horses surrounded the
area.


      At the White House, just a few blocks away, press secretary
Robert Gibbs said he informed President Barack Obama of the events
and the chief executive was "obviously saddened by what has
happened."

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A gunman, said by authorities to have
a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past, opened fire inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot by other officers.

Gunman shoots, kills, guard at Holocaust Museum

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