Jun 10, 2009 10:36 pm US/Eastern
Mass. Students At Holocaust Museum During Shooting
None Of The Children Were Injured
WASHINGTON (WBZ) ―
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Emergency vehicles, police, traffic and pedestrians are gathered outside of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. following reports of a shooting there on June 10, 2009.
CBS
Three Massachusetts schools were inside the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC on Wednesday whenÂ
a gunman opened fire and shot at guards.
'I THOUGH I WAS GOING TO DIE'
Students from the MATCH Charter School in Boston were at the museum when shots rang out.
Justin Voleo, a sophomore at the school, was in the museum's gift shop when he heard the gunfire. He told WBZ he was scared and he thought he was die. "We heard bangs. We kind of figured they were gunshots. We heard people screaming."
Voleo said he ran to the back of the gift shop with his friends to seek shelter. "We ducked and waited for someone to get us. We hid behind bookshelves. I was really scared."
Jared Taillefer, a chaperone for the MATCH school, said he heard the shots and saw people lying of the floor. "They're was shooting, a lot of people on the floor, a lot of screaming and yelling," he said.
Taillefer said the class was in the museum for about an hour-and-a-half before the shooting happened. He wasn't in the room where the shooting took place, but was able to hear the shots fired. "I knew there was something going on, but I didn't know where."
Thirty-three students and 11 staff members from the school are on the field trip. They are expected back in Boston on Thursday.
STUDENTS VERY SHAKEN
The mother of a Danvers teenager says students at the museum heard several gunshots before they were evacuated from the building.
Sandy Perkins says her daughter, Abigail, who attends the Holten Richmond Middle School in Danvers, called her shortly after the shooting.
Abigail told her mother that some of her friends were very shaken, but all were otherwise fine.
According to the Danvers schools superintendent everyone is safe. The students did not witness the event, but were able to hear the gunshots.
The group of eighth graders evacuated the museum safely and has continued on their field trip.
STUDENTS ARE OK
A group of 165 students from the Swampscott Middle School were also at the museum at the time of the shooting.
According to the Swampscott Schools Superintendent Matthew Malone, PhD, the students did not witness the shooting, but were nearby.
All the students are safe and were allowed to use their cell phones to contact their parents to tell them they're OK.
Malone says this is a common time for schools to take the field trip to Washington, DC.
THE ALLEGED SHOOTER
Law enforcement official said Thursday that James Von Brunn, an elderly white supremacist, is being investigated as the prime suspect in the shooting.
At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, officials declined to publicly confirm Von Brunn is their suspect.
According to Joseph Persichini, assistant director in charge of the Washington FBI field office, authorities have dispatched people to a suspect's home to check his computer. He said they are investigating this as a possible hate crime or domestic terrorism.
Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site called www.holywesternempire.org and wrote a book called "Kill the Best Gentile."
The U.S. Park Police says the gunman in Wednesday's attack walked into the museum with a "long gun." The gunman and a security guard were shot. A law enforcement source said the gunman was shot in the face, and authorities say he is in critical condition.
The security guard died a short time later.
In 1983, Von Brunn was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and was sentenced to at least four years in prison. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the 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.
Von Brunn lived in Lebanon, N.H. in the early 1980s when he was charged and convicted of kidnapping. A Lebanon city directory from 1981 listed him as a real estate broker in Lebanon during that time.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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