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For accused museum shooter, a downward spiral

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-12 08:38

When he lived in Easton, Md., von Brunn had a series of run-ins with local residents. He hired Robert E. Denney to create a Web site, then sued him when Denney realized the sort of material von Brunn wanted to publish and balked, said Harry M. Walsh Jr., Denney's former attorney.

James W. von Brunn is seen in this recent Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration handout photograph. [Agencies]

In 1994, von Brunn was upset that The Star Democrat of Easton wouldn't run an advertisement for an anti-Semitic program on a public-access channel, recalled executive editor Denise Riley. Von Brunn spouted a series of racist and anti-semitic comments before he was asked to leave the newsroom, Riley said.

"I was stunned to have met anyone who acted like that. I don't remember encountering anyone that bigoted before in my life," Riley said. "He was right out there for all to know and see and he was just so angry, it was kind of alarming to be around him."

Despite his tirades, his ex-wife was surprised by the charges against him. "He was a fine man and very much of an American," said Pat Sadowski, who lives in Florida and said van Brunn hasn't been a part of her life since their divorce more than 30 years ago. "He was like a John Wayne type."

On Wednesday, von Brunn parked his 2002 red Hyundai in the middle of traffic outside the museum, according to an FBI affidavit. He grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and walked toward the building.

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The gun was a vintage Winchester rifle manufactured between 1908 and 1928, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. The gun is too old to be traced to a purchaser, the official said.

Johns, the security guard, opened the door for von Brunn. Before von Brunn even got into the building, he pointed his gun at Jones' heart and pulled the trigger. Johns later died at a hospital.

As von Brunn walked into the doorway and raised his rifle again, two security guards fired at him at least eight times. He was shot in the face and fell backwards outside the door.

Investigators found 10 rounds in von Brunn's rifle and a signed, handwritten screed in his car. "You wanted my weapons, this is how you'll get them," von Brunn wrote.

"It was a desperate move," said de Nugent's girlfriend, Margaret Huffstickler, "by a man who thought he couldn't do any more."

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