D.C. Council urges hate crimes charges

June 16, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The District of Columbia Council introduced a resolution urging federal prosecutors to charge the accused Holocaust museum shooter with violating the city's hate-crimes law.

Federal prosecutors have charged James von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist who is accused of killing security officer Stephen Johns at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on June 10, with first-degree murder and weapons charges, but have not yet decided on whether he will be charged with violating the federal hate-crimes law.

A large majority of the council expressed support for the resolution at a meeting Tuesday, the Washington Post reported, but voting on the measure will take place at a later date.

Von Brunn's arraignment, scheduled for Monday, was postponed to next week because a U.S. District Court judge in Washington ruled that von Brunn was too injured to appear in court.

Von Brunn was shot in the face by two other security officers after shooting Johns, and he remains in critical but stable condition in a Washington hospital.

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