14 DAY TRIAL // It would appear that, despite our best efforts, there are still those who dwell on the old habits of xenophobia and antisemitism. This was again made apparent on Wednesday, when an elderly man, apparently connected to an anti-Jewish website, shot a security guard at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, before being himself wounded when other guards opened fire. The victim, Stephen Tyrone Jones, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after the incident.
The attacker used a rifle to shoot Jones, for reasons yet unknown. After the other security guards opened fire on him, the man was left in critical condition, authorities inform. The suspect was identified as 88-year-old James W. von Brunn, who was active on a website expressing anti-government and anti-Jewish opinions. The site revealed no clues as to why the man engaged in such actions, but witnesses say he gave no indication of what he was about to do until he did it. He too was rushed to a nearby hospital, for medical care.
Reactions to this terrible act appeared almost instantly. “There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events,” the Memorial Museum said in a statement, Reuters reports. President Barack Obama himself declared that he was “shocked and saddened” by the event, and added that, “This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms,” the same news outlet informs. The US Commander-in-Chief also said that his thoughts and praisers went to the family of the guard, “who stood watch at this place of solemn remembrance.”
“In these days and times you never know when someone is going to grab a gun and use it in an inappropriate way as was done today,” Adrian Fenty, the mayor of Washington, added and explained that this was an isolated incident, and in no way part of a trend. “We are horrified by what happened in Washington today. It is especially shocking that this attack took place at a museum designed to prevent violence and remind us of the dangers of hatred and bigotry,” Senator Frank Lautenberg shared in a statement.
“I heard the first shot, it sounded like something had been dropped from the upper stories down. The next two came really fast – bam bam. At that point, everyone took off, chaos, running,” 28-year-old Stephanie Geraghty, who was visiting the museum at the time and witnessed the crime, told Reuters. She said that the man was white and carried a silver gun.