165 Swampscott students inside D.C. museum during shooting

SWAMPSCOTT – One hundred sixty-five Swampscott eighth-graders and their chaperones were touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. when shots rang out on Wednesday afternoon.An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded museum, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himself by other officers.Law enforcement officials said James W. von Brunn, 88, an alleged white supremacist, is under investigation in the shooting and was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement and expressions of shock from among others, the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization.Museum officials identified the dead guard as Stephen T. Johns, a six-year veteran of the facility. Director Sara Bloomfield said he “died heroically in the line of duty.”Pat Moore, secretary to Swampscott Middle School Principal Ralph Watson, said the students and 16 adults serving as chaperones are fine.”Our assistant principal (Megan Bonomolo) is on the trip with them,” she said. “Everyone is fine. Capital Tour helped get our students evacuated and back on the bus. They have all called home and spoken to their parents. They had lunch and are going to go regroup then they’ll call home again.”Moore said the students would be in Washington, D.C. until Friday.Reid Cassidy spoke with his daughter Erin, 14, who is on the trip, shortly after the incident.”She’s shaken up.” he said. “But she’s OK. They were inside the museum and the shots were fired outside. She didn’t see anything but she heard boom, boom, boom. She told me the security people yelled, ‘run and hide.'”Cassidy said it’s nerve wracking for parents even though they know their kids are safe.”You’re so helpless,” he said. “Your kid is in Washington and something like this happens and you aren’t there for them.”Assistant Superintendent Maureen Bingham issued a press release to ease the community’s fears about the 165 students on the annual field trip.”All of the students are safe and have left the museum area,” she said. “The shooter was apprehended. The students were given their cell phones to immediately contact their parents to let them know that they were safe and unharmed. A Connect Ed call was made sharing the information with the students’ families. The students will continue with their visit to Washington tomorrow and return to Swampscott on Friday.”Claire Gorman said she got a phone call from her daughter on Wednesday afternoon and everyone is OK.”She seemed fine when I spoke to her,” Gorman said. “We knew the school would take care of the kids”Jennifer Agresti, who has a son on the trip, agreed the school and everyone involved handled the situation well.”I think it was very well managed,” she said. “I know the kids are safe.”The suspect has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled “Kill the Best Gentiles,” alleging a Jewish “conspiracy to destroy the white gene pool.”In 1983, Von Brunn was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and served more than six years in prison. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. At the time, police said von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation’s economic difficulties.Writings attributed to von Brunn on the Internet say the Holocaust was a hoax and decry a Jewish conspiracy to “destroy the white gene pool.”The museum usually has tight security with guards positioned both inside and outside. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance and bags are put through a screening process.The museum, located just off the National Mall near the Washington Monument, is a popular tourist attraction. It draws about 1.7 million visitors each year. It will be closed today in tribute to the museum guard who was killed.