Stacy Finley felt the commotion and knew something bad had happened.

"We were confused and didn't know what was going on," he said. "I thought the president had been shot."

Finley and his family were in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on the same day that Neo Nazi James Von Brunn went on a shooting spree and killed museum guard Stephen Tyrone Johns.

"It was heartbreaking," said Finley.

The Rock Hill teacher and father of an 8-year-old boy remembers speaking to the guard who was shot and killed.

"He was suggesting some other museums we should go and see, and he was joking with his friends, hanging out with his partner," Finley said.

Finley has a museum ticket stamped with the time of 12:15 p.m., about a half-hour before the shooting happened.

He found out the guard who had helped him was the victim when he saw a picture of Johns on a local news program that night.

"If the three minutes he spent are an indication of the majority of his life, he was a good man, a happy man, he had fun," he said.

Finley took pictures of the museum the day after the shooting when crowds packed the Holocaust Memorial. He believes the officer had a purpose, bringing those people to reflect on a time that should be remembered.

"People need to know what hate does. Hate kills," he said.

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