Gunman kills one at Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

June 10, 2009

According to local police, James Von Brunn, an 88-year-old man armed with a rifle has shot and killed guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, and been wounded himself, in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred slightly after 1:00 p.m. (EDT) (17:00 UTC). Preliminary reports say that the man entered the building and opened fire, firing five or six rounds before being shot down by other security guards in the building.

Roads next to the museum were shut down after the shooting happened.

The gunman had links to white supremacists, police say.

"I heard a shot and though it was sort of a loud, like someone had dropped something," said an eyewitness, Angela Andelson, to the Agence France-Presse news agency. "And I see all these security guards kind of like ducking. I kind of glanced again and saw a gunman coming in [...] a long-looking kind of gun. I just ran in to one of the exhibits to try to take cover. I heard the first one. When I turned and looked there were maybe two to four more shots that I heard. People were screaming and ducking down getting on the floor, getting under benches."