WHITE SUPREMACIST SHOOTS UP THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON!

A firefight broke out inside the lobby of Washington's somber and well-secured Holocaust Museum on Wednesday afternoon, leaving a guard and a gunman wounded.

NBC News reported the gunman is James Von Brunn, an 89-year-old white supremacist. His Web site is full of anti-government and anti-Semitic rants.

Washington Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser said a man brandishing a long gun - a rifle or shotgun - walked into the museum at 12:50 p.m. and almost immediately shot a security guard.

Two other guards returned fire, hitting the shooter, who was taken to a hospital. NBC said the shooter was wounded in the head.

The condition of the wounded guard was unknown, but witnesses said he appeared near death.

A third person was also injured, reportedly by flying glass.

"You're in a place of reverence and respect - you don't expect gunshots," David Unruh, a tourist from Wichita, Kansas told CNN.

Unruh, his wife and his grandchildren hit the deck in the museum lobby when five gunshots rang out near the gift shop.

"We were scared to death. We got as low as we could get. Everyone was screaming and excited," he said.

"Then some of the museum staff started yelling: 'Get up and run! Get up and run!' People kept streaming out for the next 10 minutes."

The museum, located steps from the tourist-packed National Mall, usually has a line of visitors in the lobby waiting to get through metal detectors.

It is one of Washington's most heavily secured buildings, with private guards positioned inside and outside.

Attorney General Eric Holder and a group of lawmakers were expected to attend an event at the museum Wednesday night.