Reporting from Washington — A self-described anti-Semitic ideologue was charged with murder Thursday in the shooting death of a black security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, as authorities provided new details of the allegedly unprovoked attack and the suspect's troubled life on society's right-wing extremist fringe.
James Wenneker von Brunn, 88, double-parked his 2002 Red Hyundai outside the crowded tourist attraction at lunchtime Wednesday and was approaching the entrance when security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns "was kind enough to open the door" for him, apparently in the belief that the elderly man wanted to visit the museum, Washington Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.
Von Brunn raised a 22-caliber rifle that he had been carrying at his side, aimed it at Jones and fired once, hitting him in the left upper chest and mortally wounding him, according to an affidavit filed in federal court by FBI Agent Ronald Farnsworth.
Von Brunn then "continued through the door and raised his firearm as if to fire again," when two other security guards shot back at him eight times with their .38-caliber service revolvers. Struck in the face, Von Brunn also fired twice more, the affidavit said.
He could face the death penalty if convicted, but acting U.S. Atty. Channing Phillips said no decision had been made as to whether prosecutors will seek it.
Information gathered in the investigation that was disclosed Thursday indicated that Von Brunn had come to the museum intent on making a deadly political extremist statement -- and possibly committing "suicide by cop," or provoking a deadly exchange of gunfire.
"You want my weapons -- this is how you'll get them," a notebook with handwritten notations left behind in Von Brunn's car stated, the affidavit said. "The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America's money. Jews control the mass media. The 1st Amendment is abrogated -- henceforth."
Von Brunn's rifle contained 10 more rounds of ammunition, the affidavit said.
In his car, authorities found other names and locations, but there was no indication that he had complied a hit list of other potential targets, FBI Assistant Director Joseph Persichini Jr. said. Persichini and Lanier said the probe had expanded nationwide and involves hundreds of police officers and federal agents who are interviewing friends, relatives, acquaintances and other white supremacist sympathizers.
