United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting facts for kids
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting was a shooting at that nation's memorial to The Holocaust in Washington, D.C. on June 10, 2009. Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns was shot, and later died from his injuries.
The suspect
Suspect James Wenneker von Brunn was charged in federal court on June 11, 2009, with first-degree murder and firearms violations. On July 29, 2009, von Brunn was indicted on seven counts, including four which made him eligible for the death penalty. In September 2009, a judge ordered von Brunn to undergo a competency evaluation to determine whether or not he could stand trial. While awaiting his trial, von Brunn died on January 6, 2010 of congestive heart failure caused by sepsis at the age of 89.
Attack
According to the six-page indictment, von Brunn entered the building and shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who died from his injuries. Von Brunn was a white supremacist and Holocaust denier who had been arrested and convicted for entering a federal building with various weapons in 1981 while trying to place the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, who he considered to be treasonous, under citizen's arrest.
