By now most of you have probably heard about the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and of the heroic security guard that was murdered by the shooter.
“WASHINGTON (CNN) — A lone gunman killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday before being wounded himself by return fire from other guards, sources confirmed to CNN.
The suspect was identified as James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist from Maryland, two law enforcement officials told CNN.
The museum identified the guard as Stephen Tyrone Johns.
The gunman entered the museum at 12:50 p.m. with a rifle and immediately shot a museum security guard, said Chief Cathy Lanier of the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department. Two other security guards returned fire, wounding the gunman, she said.
Both the gunman and a security guard were taken to George Washington University Hospital, where the gunman was in “critical” condition, said D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty. ”
The story about how it happened and the murderer behind it are all over the news as are numerous stories about the murderer James Von Brunn.
Read a little bit about him and there is no question that the man is an antisemitic bigot. You’ll hear stories about how he went to prison for attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and tales about his time as an artist.
Hopefully these stories won’t be filled with any sort of excuses for his actions. No apologists trying to explain that he suffered from dementia or anything like that. Because what is clear is that this man was filled with hate and anger for a long time. He knew what he was doing.
That is significant because we cannot forget that there are bad people in the world. We cannot forget that there are people who are willing to murder you because of race, color and creed. I am not advocating paranoia or saying that we should be afraid bad people will get us.
Just recommending that we be vigilant because men like Van Brunn remind us that there is still reason to be.
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