WASHINGTON — At 12:40 p.m. Wednesday a man stepped through the doors of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He took two paces, lowered his .22-caliber rifle at a security guard and, before anyone could react, opened fire in a popular national landmark.
The guard, who did not have time to draw his gun, fell bleeding and fatally wounded to the polished floor. Other guards fired back, cutting down the assailant. Terrified patrons, many of them children, dived for safety. And what moments before had been a bright weekday in June became a tableau of violence.
The attack inside the famed Holocaust museum, as described by bystanders and authorities, turned the crowded building and Washington’s nearby tourist-thronged Mall into a scene of fear and chaos, with black-clad SWAT teams, hovering helicopters and racing emergency vehicles. Stunned witnesses described a fusillade of gunfire — five shots or more — the blood-streaked floor and the screams of frightened visitors inside the museum and on the street.
“It’s like a scene from a movie,” said Edward Bhopa, 54.
“A horror movie,” added his son Andy, 28.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement sources as James von Brunn, 88, of Annapolis, Md., was said to be a longtime, “hard-core” supremacist whose Internet writings contain extensive, poisonous ravings against Jews and blacks.
The slain guard, Stephen T. Johns, 39, of Temple Hills, Md., worked for the Wackenhut security company and had been employed at the museum for six years, the museum said.
Johns was described as a warm man with a wonderful smile who acted courageously when the gunman opened fire in the building.
Guards are armed with .38-caliber revolvers and dress in police-type uniforms, Wackenhut said. It said preliminary details indicate the officers responded appropriately when facing the gunman, who opened fire with a rifle.
Bill Parsons, chief of staff at the museum, said Johns and other guards “did exactly what they were supposed to do to protect people at the museum.”
“Never take your guard force and security people for granted,” he said.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty also had words of praise.
“The men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line to ensure our safety are truly heroes, and I am deeply saddened that this senseless act of violence threatened the safety of our community,” Fenty said.
Officials at George Washington University Hospital, where von Brunn, Johns and an unidentified victim with less serious injuries were taken, said Johns suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and died there. Von Brunn was shot in the face, and the bullet exited his neck, according to a high-ranking police source. He underwent surgery and was in critical condition Wednesday night.
Police recovered a notebook in the suspect’s possession that apparently contained a list of different district locations, including Washington National Cathedral. Police bomb squads were sent to at least 10 sites.
“There are no words to express our grief and shock over today’s events,” the museum said.
The museum, which has about 400 employees and 300 volunteers, gets about 2 million visitors a year.
Several people caught glimpses of the attack.
“We heard a really loud bang, and we saw a guy with a silver length of a gun walking through” the door, said Shannon Clark, a tourist from Iowa who was walking on the mezzanine at the time of the shooting.
Maria Hernandez of Bristow, Va., was leaving an exhibit when she heard shots. “I saw a security guard pull out his gun,” she said.
Visitor Liliane Willens was heading into a basement auditorium to listen to a Holocaust survivor talk about her wartime experiences when she heard a noise that sounded like a roof falling in.
The audience in the crowded auditorium was told to stay put and that there had been a shooting but that people were safe where they were, she said.
Eventually, the Holocaust survivor went on with her presentation.
“It was quite ironic, because here was somebody talking about a tragedy in World War II, and here was this tragedy going on outside,” Willens said.
After about an hour and a half, the audience was directed to a cafeteria, and police let the group out one by one after taking contact information, Willens said.
The shooting was reminiscent of one in 1998 in which a man stormed into the lobby of the U.S. Capitol and killed two police officers.
Von Brunn is said to have been a leading writer in the white supremacist fringe for many years. He also appears to be the author of a recent Internet posting suggesting that President Barack Obama’s background is being hidden from the public.
He described himself as an artist and author. Neighbors in Annapolis, who asked not to be identified, said that they recently invited the suspect to their home for a drink and that he unexpectedly brought up his belief that the Holocaust did not occur. “It was just off the wall,” said one of the neighbors.
“Truthfully, it scares me, because I never imagined someone like that living right next to me,” said another neighbor, Joshua Shyman, 16, who said he is Jewish.
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