God comfort the family of Steven Tyrone Johns

A line of duty death at the Holocause museum in DC:

An 88-year-old gunman with a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himself by other officers, authorities said.

The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement and expressions of shock from the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization.

Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman was "engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle. "The second he stepped into the building he began firing."

Law enforcement officials said James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting and that his car was found near the museum and tested for explosives. The weapon was a .22-caliber rifle, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the investigation just beginning.

When von Brunn was captured he possessed a list he had made of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, according to another law enforcement officer who requested anonymity. The purpose of the list was not immediately clear, the official said.

The dead guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, was a six-year veteran of the facility who lived in Temple Hills, Md. Museum Director Sara Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty."

The Anchoress eloquently speaks for me:

I know nothing about Officer Steven Tyrone Johns, but today he laid down his life for the sake of strangers, and in doing so he echoed all that is heroic and fine in humanity and in heaven; his huge sacrifice contradicted and defeated the million small, thoughtless acts of spite, malice and hate that contribute everyday to people treating each other like “things,” and which thus open ever-wider the door through which evil eventually walks. God bless him and his family.

Indeed.

Comments

[Mommynator]

This is a true tragedy for this man's family. Anchoress is correct in that he laid down his life for strangers. The other guards also took many risks to make sure others in the area were thrown to safety.

I am so grateful that there are men and women who get it, who do it and inspire us.

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

What a man, a true hero.

"...and expressions of shock from the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization."

Yea, because the Muslims show nothing but love for their Jewish brothers.