White Supremacist Named Suspect in Holocaust Museum Shooting; Security Guard Dies

More news on the shooting at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. this afternoon.

Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard who was shot this afternoon at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., has died in hospital.

Police have named their suspect. He is James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist.

I knew it had to be related to anti-Semitism. I did ask if the suspect is Muslim. He is not. I just wonder if this will be covered differently because of this fact. It shouldn't be but I still wonder.

I briefly saw Wolf Blitzer interview former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and his wife Janet Langhart-Cohen. They were at the Holocaust Museum at the time of the incident. Langhart-Cohen had written a play about a fictional conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till that was being shown at the museum. They were not harmed.

Langhart-Cohen made reference to criticism of CNN by conservatives concerning the Department of Homeland Security report about right-wing extremism in America. What she didn't mention was that conservatives weren't criticizing the existence of these groups but rather that "returning military veterans" from Afghanistan and Iraq would be suspectible to their recruitment. Clearly, neither von Brunn and Scott Roeder (Dr. George Tiller's murderer) have returned from Afghanistan or Iraq.

Whether the shooter is a white supremacist or a Muslim or anyone else an innocent man just doing his job is dead. Since James von Brunn is responsible for the death of Stephen Tyrone Johns he ought to be executed assuming, of course, he doesn't die of his own injuries.