Authorities in Los Angeles took measures to beef up security for Jewish institutions on Thursday, in the wake of a fatal shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

Jack Weiss, a City Council member, said that the city is taking every lawful means to protect the Jewish community and that he was confident about the security of Jewish institutions across Los Angeles.

"We've got a very close working relationship between the Jewish institutions and the LAPD when it comes to any sort of threats," said they city official.

However, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) declined to comment on whether the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles was under heightened security following the shooting incident.

Richard French, a spokesman of the LAPD, said that the LAPD would have no comment on specific security issues.

James von Brunnand, an 88-year-old self-described Holocaust denier and white supremacist, went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington on Wednesday and opened fire with a .22 rifle, killing a security guard before he was critically wounded by other guards.

In August 2000, a white supremacist opened fire at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills, a northern Los Angeles suburb, wounding five people including three children, and later killed a Filipino-American mail carrier.

An Egyptian limousine driver opened fire at a ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4, 2002, killing two and wounding four others before being killed by an airline security officer.

Police in neighboring Riverside County said they would increase patrols around the newly-opened Tolerance Education Center for the next two weeks "as a precaution."

Source: Xinhua