Holocaust Museum Shooting: Shooter IDed as James W. Von Brunn

Holocaust Museum Shooting - Washington — An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, gravely wounding a security guard before two other officers returned fire. The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized.

The shooting appears to have occurred near the museum entrance and the victims are a male shooter and a male security guard.

Both men were seriously wounded in the gunfire exchange, they were taken to George Washington University Hospital. A third person suffered minor injury during the Holocaust Museum shooting, possibly from breaking glass.

City police Police Sgt. David Schlosser said the gunman walked into the building carrying "a long gun." The extent of the injuries was not immediately known.

Nor did authorities immediately provide the name or any other biographical information about the assailant, who they said used a "long gun" in the shooting.

Update: Shooter IDed as James W. von Brunn. Apparently, anti-Semite white supremacist.

The episode unfolded inside the Holocaust Museum, which maintains a heavy security presence, with guards positioned inside and out. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and bags are screened.

It was not immediately known whether the gunman made it through the detectors before opening fire.

Holocaust Museum, across the street from the National Mall, and within sight of the Washington Monument, was closed for the day after the shooting. Nearby streets were cordoned off by police.

In a statement, Holocaust Museum spokesman Andrew Hollinger said an assailant shot a Holocaust Museum security officer and "two Holocaust Museum security officers returned fire, hitting the assailant."

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said he informed President Barack Obama of the events and said the chief executive was "obviously saddened by what has happened."

Holocaust Museum houses exhibits and records relating to the Holocaust more than a half century ago in which more than six million Jews were killed by the Nazis.

Mark Lippert of LaSalle, Ill., who was in the Holocaust Museum, said he heard several loud pops and saw several schoolchildren running toward him, three with horrified looks on their faces.

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