Jun 12, 2009 8:15 am US/Pacific
Holocaust Museum Reopens After Shooting
88-Year-Old White Supremacist James Von Brunn Faces Murder Charges
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
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Flowers are left outside the US Holocaust Museum, a day after a security guard was killed by a white supremicist June 11, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images
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James von Brunn, the alleged gunman who fatally shot a security guard inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. on June 9, 2009, is seen in this undated image from Talbot County (Maryland) Sheriff's Office.
AP
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has reopened after a day of mourning for a guard authorities say was killed in an attack by a rifle-toting white supremacist.
Hundreds of people are lined up at various entrances waiting to enter. The first visitors were allowed in shortly after 10 a.m.
There are few signs of the shooting left outside the museum. The crime scene tape is gone and the bullet-scarred front doors have been replaced.
About two dozen flower bouquets and a photo of 39-year-old guard Stephen T. Johns form a makeshift memorial outside one corner of the museum.
In a statement Wednesday, President Obama hailed jones as "courageous" for standing watch at "a place of solemn remembrance."
Authorities have charged 88-year-old James von Brunn with murder in the Wednesday attack.
Police said von Brunn remained in critical condition early Friday at a Washington hospital. He was shot in the face in an exchange of gunfire with other guards.
Well-wishers came to Johns' boyhood home Thursday on a quiet, tree-lined street in Temple Hills to remember the man who spent the past six years working at the Washington museum until he was gunned down.
"If Steve saw an old lady struggling with groceries, he'd go help her," said Kevin Martin, who first met Johns at Crossland High School in Maryland.
"He was just a genuinely good guy," said another friend, Carlton Spriggs, who met Johns when they were in their early 20s and training to become plumbers. "I can't think of anything bad to say about him."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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