UPDATE: Detectives assigned to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, with the assistance of members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Park Police, are investigating a fatal shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Shortly before 1 p.m., on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 10, a lone gunman armed with a long gun opened fire on Special Police Officers (SPO’s) guarding the front entrance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, located at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW (14th Street and Independence Avenue, SW).  The gunman shot one SPO and was himself wounded by return gunfire from two other SPO’s.  An off duty Metropolitan Police Department officer in the vicinity at the time the incident was dispatched, along with United States Park Police officers, immediately entered the museum and rendered first aid to the injured. 

The mortally wounded SPO and the as yet unidentified suspect were transported by D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department personnel to an area hospital where the SPO was pronounced dead and the suspect was admitted in critical condition.  

The SPO has been identified as 39-year-old Stephen Tyrone Johns of Temple Hills.

Shortly before 1 p.m., a shooting incident occurred at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Fourteenth Street entrance in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, June 10.

According to Museum sources, an assailant shot a museum security officer upon entering the museum. Two Museum security officers returned fire hitting the assailant. The Museum officer and the suspect were transported to a local hospital.

The Holocaust Museum was closed for the remainder of the day, but expects to be opened tomorrow.

U.S. Park Police are continuing the investigation. Early, but unconfirmed reports are the assailant was an elderly gunman suspected to have ties with a white supremacy group already under investigation.

Upon entering the Museum, the man opened fire without warning and gravely wounded a security guard before being shot. Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, stated to the media that that the gunman was in critical condition.

The suspect, thought to be James Von Brunn, an alleged white supremacist, is under investigation. Authorities discovered his car nearby and tested the vehicle for explosives.

Von Brunn reportedly has an anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled "Kill the Best Gentile." Over a decade ago, he was convicted on charges of attempted kidnapping of members of the Federal Reserve Board.