Son: Von Brunn gave no warning signs

NEW YORK, June 16 (UPI) -- The son of the elderly man charged with killing a guard at the holocaust museum in Washington said Monday there were no warning signs of violence.

Erik von Brunn, in an interview with "Good Morning America" on ABC, said his 88-year-old father James said the same things in the days immediately before the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting that he had been saying for years -- racist and anti-Semitic rants.

"I never once believed that he could've done anything like this," he said. "I never believed it was more than just talk."

James von Brunn had been living in Erik's condo in Annapolis, Md., for four years. He is in critical-but-stable condition in a Washington hospital after being wounded during the museum shootout and faces a murder charge.

Erik von Brunn said his father started trying to convince him his views were correct after he grew up. He said his father became more extreme when he moved in with Erik and his fiancee.

"He was twisted by hate; it consumed him," Erik von Brunn said. "It prevented him from doing anything normal. There was no normal conversation."

James von Brunn and his second wife, Erik's mother, divorced when their son was still very young.