The 88-year-old white supremacist accused of fatally shooting a guard at the Holocaust Museum was too injured to appear in a D.C. court to answer murder charges, a federal judge ruled Monday.
James W. von Brunn remains in critical but stable condition at a hospital in the District, prosecutors said. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola adjourned the arraignment for another week to see whether von Brunn’s condition improves.
Von Brunn was charged in the shooting death of museum security guard Stephen T. Johns, 39. Police said Johns politely opened the door of the museum for von Brunn before the 88-year-old turned around and shot Johns in the chest with a World War II-era rifle.
Other guards returned fire, hitting von Brunn in the face. FBI officials said the Annapolis man is expected to survive.
Public defender A.J. Kramer told the judge he met with von Brunn on Sunday but did not discuss any details. He said he could not discuss his client’s condition in open court, citing health privacy laws.
Facciola called both sides to the bench. He then scheduled another hearing for next Monday.
Meanwhile, family members of both men condemned the shooting.
The mother of Johns told WUSA/Channel 9 that she’s forgiven von Brunn for the loss of her only son.
“I can’t hate the man. If I hated I wouldn’t be any better than he,” said Jacqueline Carter, of Temple Hills. “If he does survive, maybe he can get rid of the hate in his heart.”
Erik von Brunn, 32, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, apologized for the attack and said his father should have died in it, not Johns. He said he and the elderly von Brunn did not get along and that his father’s views tore the family apart.
“I loved my father. But what he did was unforgivable,” von Brunn told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
After ABC showed a video of Carter saying she hoped the younger von Brunn would forgive his father, Erik von Brunn replied, “Forgiveness is very difficult right now.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
