WASHINGTON, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President
Barack Obama has expressed shock and sadness over Wednesday's
shooting at the Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum, in which
a neo-Nazi fatally injured a guard.
The gunman, later identified as James von Brunn, aged 88,
entered the main entrance of the museum, located a few minutes'
walk from the White House, and opened fire on the guards. Two
guards were wounded, and the attacker suffered a head injury in
the return fire.
"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting at the US
Holocaust Memorial Museum. This outrageous act reminds us that
we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in
all its forms," President Obama said in a statement.
One of the wounded guards, Stephen Johns, 39, later died
in a hospital, where Brunn was also hospitalized in a critical
condition.
"Today, we have lost a courageous security guard who stood
watch at this place of solemn remembrance. My thoughts and
prayers are with his family and friends in this painful time,"
Obama said speaking about the late Johns.
Obama, who last week visited a WWII Nazi concentration
camp in Germany, added that "No American institution is more
important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act
of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who
were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world."
The hospitalized gunman is a WWII veteran and has in the
past attracted publicity for his racist and anti-Semitic views.
He served a five-year term in a federal prison in early 1980s
for attempting an armed kidnapping at the Federal Reserve.
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