New Life Church: Female Security Guard Shoots Gunman Dead at Church
Dec 9th, 2007 | 16 responses
UPDATE: It’s been determined that one man wounded five persons and murdered four persons at both churches which are about 60 miles apart. Matthew Murray, 24, a home-schooled son (one of two brothers) of a priminent Denver family did the shooting. Murray was five years ago an ‘associate’ At the Missionary Training Center, but was found ‘healthwise’ unfit for assignment after the 12 week training for missionary work. That Missionary Training Center was the shooter’s first target, befre he traveled to the other churxh and unleashed more mayhem. Today, the Director of the Center said Murray was believed to have been sending hate mail to the Center. Murray’s father is a neurologist and a prominent multiple-sclerosis researcher. More on the story here
At the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Murray killed two sister, ages 16 and 18. Their father was also wounded twice and is in hospital.
The story of the female security guard who killed the shooter, Miss Jeanne Assam, is here… “Security Guard: ‘God Guided Me And Protected Me’”
Today there were incomprehensible deadly shootings at two different churches in Colorado
…one shooting took place just after midnight in the youth dormitory at the Missionary Training Center, in Arvada, Colorado, a city just northwest of Denver.
There, the gunman shot dead two young people in their early 20s, one from Alaska and one from Minnesota. The gunman also seriously wounded two other young people there, one from South Dakota.
All were in a Youth Worship Mission together and were cleaning up after a Christmas party. Their pictures were flashed on television. Many tears. The police were unable to find the shooter.
…The other shooting took place today as noon services were ending in Colorado Springs at the New Life Church, also called by some, The New Life Megachurch, that has 14,000 members, 350 employees and a huge ‘campus.’
The gunman opened fire there (it may be the same gunman that was in Arvada earlier, but this is not confirmed) and killed two persons, one a teenage girl. He shot three others who are in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The New Life Church had taken an extra precaution after hearing about the Arvada incident earlier in the day.
A female security guard on the scene at the Colorado Springs church, shot the killer dead. (She is currently lauded for saving lives. This is all the info that has been released about her thus far, the sheriff only referring to the guard as ‘her’.)
Now come more televised pictures of the victims’ yearbook photos. More tears. Sheriff with badge. News conference/ gaggle of mikes. Brave. Contained. Tragedy. People in Michelin Tire Man parkas embracing in the freezing cold. Steam rising as network affiliate reporters report. Governor’s message. Senator’s message. People shake when they try to speak.
The New Life Megachurch has had difficult times this past year as it is the church founded by Pastor Ted Haggard, who was let go for engaging with a homosexual prostitute. Haggard was, nonetheless, popular with his church members, and the church was recovering.
Focus on The Family run by James Dobson, is just down the road in Colorado Springs. No doubt the reverberation of this tragedy reached them quickly.
Meanwhile, across the nation, in basements, garages, bedrooms, cellars, attics, living rooms, other disturbed persons write the next or the last entry in their journals of screed. They count and recount the ammo one more time. They know, they just know they are going to abate Evil and set things Right in the world. They use Mapquest to figure out how to get to their targeted ground zero. Perfectly functional, can drive a car. Perfectly deadly, sick as rabid dogs.
And no one notices. Or tries not to. Or says, not my problem. Or says, well, we’re all a little odd. Or just stays away and hopes for the best.
I can only say, that once again, likely the person or persons who were the shooters at the churches, will have had a history of instability that too many did not recognize for its homicidal and suicidal nature, or misinterpreted the severity of what they were seeing.
Personal freedoms are so highly cherished in our country, that sometimes, people do not want to try to interfere, even when they know someone is quite mad and NOT harmless.
In California, even when a person suffering from severe mental illness poses a clear danger to themselves or to others, there are laws that prevent sincerely concerned others from helping the severely ill person get the help they need.
Is it such in our culture that in order to avoid ‘the slippery slope’ of people perhaps wrongfully being detained for a ‘mental health hold’ by their grubbing relatives, that we have accepted continual and unceasing mass murder by seriously disturbed people? Is this the only trade?
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16 Responses to “New Life Church: Female Security Guard Shoots Gunman Dead at Church”
Tragic as it is, It is a difficult one to balance, is it not? I know of an adolescent who turned in his female friend for threatening to kill herself and is now persona non grata in her book. I complemented him on his courage, his desire to do the right thing and for caring….but I know it isn’t easy, and she now keeps him at a distance.
I wonder though if that is the only issue. Do you believe that one form of lethality or another would be found by the one who is losing control? Or would it help if we didn’t have so many guns so readily available?
And they continue to insist that Religion in America is not under attack.
Somebody, please, be real. Not even Bill O’Reilly would use this tragedy to push his culture war. Just because people die in a church does not mean that the intention was to go after religion. I’m amazed this even has to be written down.
Dr. E, you do point out something many people know, that usually there are warning signs far before a person cracks, but I wonder: how do you know when it’s gone far enough to take measures? I can imagine that the total number of disturbed people is far larger than the number who eventually crack and go on rampages. Many may live out their lives without ever harming anyone. The brother of a friend of mine is such an example. He’s not well, hypocondriac and a control-freak, with uncontrollable anger whenever he doesn’t get his way. He once threatened his family with a knife and went on medication. He’s not taking that medication now and so far has not become violent again, but you can see his tendencies simmering under the surface. He’s been told he needs help but declines. If he someday goes on a rampage I will not be surprised, but I don’t see what one can do, or when the time is to do it.
there are so many things wrong with this inflammatory statement, i don’t even know where to start…
really? because i’m pretty sure you could also say it’s possible that the “shooter” was pretty much OK until one of the pedophilic elders of the church sexually abused them.
or you could also say that they might have been pretty much OK until they were driven to the edge by any number of antibiological repressions that were forced upon them by the tragically repressed ministry that they quite possible could be taking revenge upon…
but then, that would just be speculation…
Somebody, I hope you find the lie about your statement about attacks on religion, followed promptly by attacks on religion, entertaining.
It’s no surprise to the observant:
Gunman “hated Christians” — law-enforcement official
A right-wing guy whom I’ve read a bit (who fled communist Central Europe years ago), is amazed we don’t have gun control in this country.
“A knife takes courage; poison takes time. A gun requires neither.”
““A knife takes courage; poison takes time. A gun requires neither.”
That’s about the wisest saying I’ve heard lately
What we have are a lot of unbalanced people combined with an ability for them to do their worst without much planning, at a safe distance, with little personal risk.
Guns are enablers, much like the anonimity of the Internet enables verbal attacks. It’s easy, it doesn’t require much forethought, and there is little personal risk.
I’m not a gun grabber and do not believe gun control is a panacea, and there is an awful lot of emotion-driven foolishness out there, but there is a good measure of public support for at least some kinds of gun control. (“Loophole” closure has very high support.) Usually it’s aimed (no pun intended) at handguns, and a few specifically target (again, no pun intended) concealed or concealable weapons.
It would be bold, but the next President Clinton might seek to get the Second Amendment repealed. Failing that, as some weapons already are illegal, additional ones could be made illegal (the concealable kind) or subject to licensure or the equivalent of the federal-permission-and-tax-payment that applies to suppressors and to machine guns.
The following Pew report was issued showing recent views of gun control, and the underlying problems with people and society that may be involved with shootings, before and after the Virginia Tech shooting.
This report was issued about a year after the Columbine shootings.
This older report also shows there is support among many for gun control.
There are a lot of sensible gun laws possible, without needing to repeal the second amendment – all of them trumped by the NRA gun lobby.
I don’t know how many more massacres it will take, before the country realizes that our system is not working.
All the attention is on terrorism by foreigners.
What are these massacres doing if not terrorizing, even if it’s done by our own?
It’s different when shoppers are killed by a US citizen?
I son’t think so. The effect is the same, and the vicitms are just as dead.
The use of this tragedy to prop a specious argument for religion being under “attack” quickly runs into difficulty when we realize the shooter was raised in a deeply religious home. I guess some folks just want to have it both ways. Sensible people will be trying to address the real issues and causes, not isolating one aspect of a tragedy to exploit it for divisive purposes.
Amen to J.Spencer.
If this is not about religion being under attack would it be viewed more accurately as, the people who are housed in places of worship have become soft targets for the perpetrators of crimes such as these? Christians are taught to reject the fear of the one who can destroy the body but rather fear the one who can destroy the soul. Our hope is in a simple belief and it is the simplicity of our faith which places us in vulnerable positions. Our instruction is to pray for the one who persecutes, whether that persecution is aimed at our faith or at our person. What has happened is a tradgedy and no amount of conjecture, as to whether the motive was to bring the church ‘under attack’ or not, is material. Spencer, is it possible to ‘define the real issue’. I don’t think so. And what good is a definition anyway? There are not enough pages or ink to pen with, that could write the laws which would give the protection or provide that which we seek. Hence the simplicity of the plan which has been passed down since the death of Christ.
Gunman…
UPDATE: It’s been determined that one man wounded five persons and murdered four persons at bo [...]…