Butler Co. Man Kept In Touch With Alleged Gunman Von Brunn

A Butler County man, who describes himself as a “white separatist,” told Channel 11 News he kept in contact with a man accused of opening fire in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial.

John de Nugent, of Sarver, was one of the last people who had contact with 88-year-old James von Brunn. Police said von Brunn walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial and opened fire with a .22 caliber rifle, killing a security guard.

"The Washington Post had an emergency bulletin I got in my email, and they said an elderly man, and I said, ‘Oh my God,’ de Nugent said. “I wonder if that was Jim von Brunn, and it was. I was exactly right."

De Nugent said he never met von Brunn in person, but the two of them talked on the phone and communicated online. Two weeks ago, the violent tone in von Brunn’s last email to de Nugent prompted him to call von Brunn.

“He was using words like ‘fight’ and words like ‘kill,’ said De Nugent. “He wasn't talking about killing blacks; he was talking about killing Jews, which I'm against that."

De Nugent said von Brunn, like many white people, fear and believe President Barack Obama has a secret agenda to take away guns, freedom of speech and to create a state-run communist economy.