Swampscott teen eyewitness to D.C. murder

SWAMPSCOTT – At least one Swampscott student witnessed the fatal shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.Swampscott resident Rick Dandreo said his son Chris Dandreo, 14, saw the fatal shooting of security guard Steven T. Johns by white supremacist James von Brunn from a second-floor window.”He was on the second floor with a few other kids,” Rick Dandreo said. “He told me they heard a noise and looked out the window. He saw the security guard shot. He told me he turned and ran.”Dandreo said the parents of some of the students went to Washington, D.C. to be with their children.”I know a couple of the kids are pretty shaken up,” he said. “Some of them didn’t even want to leave the hotel room after that.”Many of the 165 students from Swampscott who were on the eighth-grade field trip heard the gunshots when they were inside the museum, including Erin Cassidy, 14. Cassidy told her father, Reid Cassidy, she didn’t see anything but she heard several gunshots then people were yelling to run and hide.The 88-year-old white supremacist who opened fire in the museum, killing the guard, will be charged with murder, officials said Thursday. Johns, 39, was shot to death by von Brunn after opening the door to let him into the museum, District Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference. Von Brunn exchanged fire with guards who shot and critically injured him, stopping him from entering the museum and hurting anyone else.Dandreo said he is grateful guards were able to stop Von Brunn before anyone else was injured or killed.According to authorities, Von Brunn will be charged with murder and killing in the course of possessing a firearm at a federal facility, both capital offenses under federal law, and authorities said hate crime charges were also possible.Von Brunn, a native of St. Louis, was living in New Hampshire in 1981 when he tried to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve. A guard captured him outside the room where the board was meeting. He had a revolver, sawed-off shotgun and knife in a bag with him. He served more than six years in prison for that crime.Von Brunn, who denies the Holocaust, is a World War II veteran and he served in the Navy for approximately 14 years. He also worked in advertising in New York City and resided on the South Shore in Maryland during the late 1960s. According to public records, in 2004 and 2005 he lived in Hayden, Idaho, which for years was home to the Aryan Nations group run by neo-Nazi Richard Butler.(Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)