I’m at home; if commenters want to talk about it feel free to post links in the comments here, I’ll update with news stories as they come in
13:24: From Tumblr, a contributor reports her mom says “some crazy fuck came in and started shooting people in the lobby.”
13:25: Confirmed by CBS.
13:27: Seattle Post Intelligencer saying two or three people shot, and it seems they include the shooter.
13:32: A security guard was shot when a man with a rifle walked into the building. A second security guard allegedly caught the shooter, per the Post Chronicle.
Well, at least it seems the guy has already been apprehended. But is anyone else getting that sick stomach feeling from all of this violence directed at marginalized groups in the U.S.? First Dr. Tiller, now this. It’s starting to feel like that backlash everyone expected after the election is beginning. More after the jump.
13:39: God I hate journalists sometimes. This woman tweeted she was being evacuated, and here is CNN:
14:12: Have heard on MSNBC – the shooter is believed to be an elderly white supremacist.
14:50: D.C. police chief confirms in a press conference that they believe it was a lone gunman and they are beginning to open up traffic around the museum. One guard is in grave condition, and the shooter is in the hospital as well. These are the only two victims they are describing. MSNBC says the shooter is 89-year-old James de Brun, who has allegedly spent prior time in prison on charges of having walked into the Federal Reserve threatening people with a gun over interest rates. He sounds like a reasonable old gentleman.
I’m going to sign off this post now, but will have some more thoughts on violence and fear later.
Yuck yuck yuck yuck. This makes my stomach hurt. It hits way too close to home.
It’s also on Fox News, which was the first place I managed to find anything about it. Glad to know it’s on CBS so I can get away from the Fox crap.
Thanks for breaking this so quickly. I was just seeing all the posts about it on various Tumblrs and hoped more info would pop up on big news sites. I am poor and do not have cable, darn it. Going through that museum was a fucking emotional bulldozer for me. I can’t believe someone would desecrate it in such a way. Infuriating!
I’m at work, away from a TV, and am having a hard time finding anything on it on my usual sites. I guess they’re waiting for more info before putting something up?
Either way, it’s heartbreaking. Even if nobody is killed (which I hope is the case), the fact that a place like that would be a target is so upsetting.
“But is anyone else getting that sick stomach feeling from all of this violence directed at marginalized groups in the U.S.? First Dr. Tiller, now this. It’s starting to feel like that backlash everyone expected after the election is beginning.”
I had the same thought. Ugh.
That news just made me lose my lunch. I live in a predominantly jewish town, and see people with tattooed numbers pretty frequently. How could ANYONE go into a place commemorating(is that the correct word?) the horror and hardship that these people lived through and cause more horror and violence???!??
Thank you for breaking the news to me (in UK). This is scary, horrible stuff, particularly in light of the recent European elections where right-wing Holocaust-denying parties won seats. My grandfather was in Auschwitz – I am shaking.
I tend to think that terrorists–white supremacists, anti-choice wackos, Al Qaeda–like to ramp up their violence when they sense things are not going their way. We’ve got a black president, Roe v. Wade is not going to be overturned anytime soon, gay marriage is gaining a toehold, Jews are still doing okay…all of this makes extremists feel even more desperate, whether they’re lone wolves or part of an organized terror group.
Not to minimize these recent attacks, but in an odd way, if society is really pissing these evil people off, I think it’s a sign that we’re headed in the right direction.
It’s interesting that I’m not the only one who immediately thought of Dr. Tiller upon hearing this news. Is it possible that the fact that Tiller’s assassin actually achieved something for his movement (the permanent closing of the clinic) encouraged this new shooter to think that picking up a gun would be a way for him to cause similar change?
If that’s the lesson people are learning from the situation in Kansas we’re all in big trouble.
Working in my DC office right now.
88 yr old white supremacist appears to be responsible, according to news reports.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1693510
Spare yourself an aneurysm and avoid the comments section.
As far as I am concerned, the Holocaust museum is practically holy ground. It profoundly affected me to the point that I ended up sobbing in the room full of shoes.
The American Prospect’s TAPPED blog has some good info on the shooter: http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=06&year=2009&base_name=holocaust_musuem_shooter_is_wh
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=06&year=2009&base_name=more_on_alleged_holocaust_muse
Oh my god. Ohhhh my god. This frightens me more than I want to admit. I guess as a Jew and/or a woman one always sort of knows that there are people out there who want to use violence against one, but there’s knowing and there’s KNOWING. I agree that this is backlash, and optimistically I agree that it means we’re getting somewhere in large terms, but. Paradoxically, I feel less safe in my own country in the past two weeks than I have for years. That’s what complacency gets you, I guess.
PSoul, I was out and about all afternoon–didn’t know anything about it until 5pm. Just wanted to say a big thanks for jumping on this horrible story and making the link to Tiller’s murder. It’s not a coincidence, and now I’m just waiting for the 3rd thing…
Becky, I agree with you. These are acts of rage and desperation by people who see their grip on this country eroding day by day. (Well, they’re also like tantrums thrown by 2 year olds-only with guns.) In a sense, that is good news.
But we cannot let these loons act out their anger in this way over and over. We now have an FBI that might actually take an interest in domestic terrorist groups, and I urge all of you to contact the FBI to demand that they protect us from these clear and present dangers. Thank goodness for the Southern Poverty Law Center and their ilk, or we wouldn’t have any body of information on hate groups at all. God knows King George didn’t care.