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Former Marine returned fire in museum shooting

One of the two security guards who shot at a white supremacist after he allegedly opened fire Wednesday inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., had been a rifle marksman and pistol expert in the Corps, according to military records.

Jason McCuiston was a sergeant when he left the service in March 2006, said 1st Lt. Brian Block, a Corps spokesman at the Pentagon.

“Mac” McCuiston and Harry Weeks, a former D.C. police officer, each returned fire when James W. von Brunn allegedly walked into the museum and began shooting, killing fellow security guard Stephen T. Johns, according to a report in the Washington Post. A bullet hit Von Brunn in the face, and he remains in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital, according to The Post.

McCuiston and Weeks had worked at the museum for only a few weeks before the shooting, the newspaper reported.

The Holocaust museum “is a target,” McCuiston told The Post. “People don’t look at is as one. But you know that’s just the way the world goes around, unfortunately.”

McCuiston joined the Corps in March 2001, graduating from Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., Block said. Promoted to sergeant in November 2004, he was a fixed-wing aircraft mechanic, and his last assignment was with Marine Attack Squadron 231 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.

His service medals include the Good Conduct Medal, Global War on Terror Service Medal and Defense Service Medal.

Before joining the museum staff, McCuiston worked as a police officer outside Atlanta, The Post reported.