AP Source: Suspect is White Supremacist

June 10, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - A law enforcement official says the suspect in today's shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is an elderly white supremacist named James Von Brunn.

Authorities have said the gunman was hospitalized in critical condition after today's shooting.

Von Brunn maintains a racist, anti-Semitic Web site. The site says he was in the U.S. Navy Reserves during World War II. He also wrote a book called "Kill the Best Gentile."

An FBI official says today's shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Von Brunn was convicted in 1983 of trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board. He had been arrested outside the room where the Fed 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.