A gunman opened fire inside the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, wounding a security guard before other officers returned fire, officials said.
The gunman has been identified as James Von Brunn. The man have an apparent link to a white supremacist movement. A Web site believed to be his personal blog carries several anti-Semitic statements — the site says he was a World War II veteran and also served time in federal prison for trying to make a “citizens arrest” of Federal Reserve Board members in 1981.
David Schlosser, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said two people were shot, the security guard and the gunman. Both were transferred to a local hospital, he said.
Schlosser said the gunman entered the museum shortly before 1 p.m. ET carrying a “long gun,” but that it’s unclear whether he was carrying a rifle or a shotgun. He shot one security guard, Schlosser said, and then two other security guards returned fire, wounding the shooter.
There were conflicting reports about how many people were wounded. Another law enforcement official earlier said three people were shot, though there are no fatalities.
Police and other law enforcement, including the FBI’s Terrorism Task Force, have surrounded the museum site.
Witnesses said they heard a series of gunshots, and did not immediately know what was happening.
“We heard a huge boom and we all kind of looked around,” said one visitor from Chicago. After they heard more shots, she said, “We all hit the ground and definitely knew it was gunshots.”
The Holocaust Museum is a popular tourist destination, located south of the National Mall and near the Washington Monument.
