President Barack Obama was “saddened” by news that a gunman entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. Wednesday and opened fire, seriously injuring a security guard, the White House said. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he received word of the incident and immediately informed the president. “I walked in and told him there had been a shooting at the museum,” Gibbs said. Obama was “obviously concerned for the security guard that appears to have been hurt.” “I gave him then mostly a factual briefing of what we knew then at that point,” Gibbs added. Speaking at the beginning of the regular White House briefing, Gibbs said the president was “obviously saddened by what has happened.” The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. EST, according to authorities who spoke to reporters on the scene. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty told reporters that “just before 1 o'clock, an armed gunman came into the entrance (of the museum) and immediately opened fire, striking a security guard.” “As of right now, the armed gunman is in the hospital in critical condition,” Fenty said. “There is also a security guard who was hit who is in the hospital in grave condition.” Washington D.C.'s Chief of Police Cathy Lanier told reporters that the gunman was armed with a rifle and he began firing “the second he stepped into the building.” “At this point, this appears to be a lone gunman, he appears to be acting alone,” Lanier said.
