WASHINGTON  An 88-year-old white supremacist with a rifle walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, one of the capital’s most visited sites, on Wednesday afternoon and began shooting, fatally wounding a security guard and sending tourists scrambling before he himself was shot, the authorities said.
The gunman was identified by law enforcement officials as James W. von Brunn, who embraces various conspiracy theories involving Jews, blacks and other minority groups and at one point waged a personal war with the federal government.
The gunman and the security guard were both taken to nearby George Washington University Hospital, with Mr. von Brunn handcuffed to a gurney, witnesses said. The guard, Stephen T. Johns, died a short time later. Museum officials said he had worked there for six years; The Associated Press reported his age as 39.
Image Police officers suited up in body armor outside the United States National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington after a shooting there on Wednesday. Credit... Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said Mr. von Brunn was in critical condition. Chief Cathy L. Lanier of the Washington police said the gunman walked into the museum’s main entrance shortly before 1 p.m. and began shooting without warning. At least one security guard was returning fire; a total of five or six shots are believed to have been fired.
File photo of the museum 
According to local police, James Von Brunn, an 88-year-old man armed with a rifle has shot and killed guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, and been wounded himself, in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred slightly after 1:00 p.m. (EDT) (17:00 UTC). Preliminary reports say that the man entered the building and opened fire, firing five or six rounds before being shot down by other security guards in the building.

Roads next to the museum were shut down after the shooting happened.

The gunman had links to white supremacists, police say.

"I heard a shot and though it was sort of a loud, like someone had dropped something," said an eyewitness, Angela Andelson, to the Agence France-Presse news agency. "And I see all these security guards kind of like ducking. I kind of glanced again and saw a gunman coming in ... a long-looking kind of gun. I just ran in to one of the exhibits to try to take cover. I heard the first one. When I turned and looked there were maybe two to four more shots that I heard. People were screaming and ducking down getting on the floor, getting under benches."