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Third Politically Driven Shooting Kills Guard at Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC remains closed today after a gunman fired shots, which resulted in the death of Stephan Tyrone Johns, a security guard at the museum. Suspect James Von Brunn is a Holocaust denier and white supremacist. After the incident, police found anti-Semitic writings at Von Brunn’s residence in Annapolis, Maryland.

This is the third shooting in recent weeks that is politically driven and has been considered domestic terrorism. Army private William Andrew Long, was shot and killed this month because of the suspect’s opposition to the US military’s presence in the Middle East. Also, Dr. George Tiller, one of the only remaining late abortion doctors in the country, was shot and killed in his church in late May by an anti-choice extremist.

President Barack Obama said, “this outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. 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,” according to MSNBC. The Holocaust Museum opened in 1993 and aims to educate on how hate and injustice that can lead to genocide. The attack is “further proof that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial have not passed from the world,” said Israel’s information and Diaspora minister, Yuli Edelstein, reported the Associated Press.

Sources:

MSNBC 6/10/09; USA Today 6/10/09; Feminist Daily Newswire 5/31/09; The Associated Press 6/11/09

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