Hundreds mourn slain guard as gentle giant with big heart

FORT WASHINGTON, Md. (AP) — Family, friends and colleagues on Friday remembered a guard who was gunned down at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last week as the victim of an evil and barbaric act that contrasted starkly with his love for life.

Police and security guards, dozens of museum employees and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar were among hundreds of people who attended a funeral for 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns at Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, not far from Washington, D.C.

They remembered Johns, who lived in nearby Temple Hills, as a “gentle giant,” a sometimes shy man who was a great listener, loved to travel and had a passionate zeal for life. Johns had an 11-year-old son and last month celebrated his first anniversary with his second wife.

“Stephen was not only a big guy in a uniform,” the Rev. John McCoy said. “He was a man with a big heart.”

His kindness was particularly evident, McCoy said, when Johns carried out his final act. Authorities say Johns opened the museum door for 88-year-old James von Brunn, who shot Johns in the heart last Wednesday. Von Brunn, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier, faces murder charges in the killing of Johns, who was black.

Even if Johns had survived the shooting and lived for a hundred years, the minister said, his act of kindness in the face of evil would have remained his “finest hour.”

“Stephen, our Stephen, is yet another victim of an evil, ... insane mentality that was thought to be rapidly diminishing from the American landscape,” McCoy said. “There’s an element in this country that still desires for the Holocaust to continue.”

In a rousing eulogy that was interrupted frequently by applause, McCoy called on mourners to honor Johns by refusing to remain silent in the face of racism.

He said although the mourners could not bring Johns back, they could spare others from such tragedy by leaving the church determined to do everything in their power to end prejudice.

“Though he is silenced, we can’t afford to allow love, justice and righteousness to be silenced,” McCoy said.