Posted on 12/10/2007 2:24:21 PM PST by tcrlaf
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The deadly shooting sprees at a megachurch and a missionary training school were believed to have been carried out by the same person — a 24-year-old suburban Denver man who "hated Christians," a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, identified the gunman as Matthew Murray, the son of a neurologist who is a prominent researcher on multiple sclerosis.
Five people — including a gunman — were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two eruptions of violence 12 hours and 65 miles apart.
The first attack took place at a youth missionary training center in the Denver suburb of Arvata; the other happened at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where the gunman was shot and killed by a security guard.
The law enforcement official said Murray was believed to be the gunman in both attacks. Murray did not appear to have a criminal history but "hated Christians," the official said. The official did not know Murray's religion, if any.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
That was beautiful!
Thanks for the ping, AD.
I’m on the thread so thought I would see if I can access it for you. The page looks messed up, but below is the text:
Church shooter wanted to be missionary
By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 12/10/2007 06:29:06 PM MST
Police describe a chaotic scene with smoke bombs going off outside the New Life Church moments before Matthew Murray began firing in a rampage that killed two and wounded three others Sunday.
Forensic evidence from the shooting at the church matches evidence found at Arvada’s Youth with a Mission, a missionary training facility, scene of an earlier shooting spree that killed two others. Murray had once been enroleld there.
Police say Murray, 24, of Englewood, was the lone gunman in both cases.
At an afternoon press conference, police described the chaos at New Life Church that began at about 1:10 p.m. Sunday.
Smoke bombs went off near two entrances to the mega-church before Murray fired his first shots.
Then Murray, who was armed with clips for 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and two hand guns, began firing an assault rifle in an corner of the parking lot.
Sisters Stephanie, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, and their father, David Works, 51, were struck. Stephanie died at the scene, and her sister died later at Penrose Hospital.
Their father was wounded in the abdomen and groin.
Murray continued to spray bullets, hitting Judy Purcell, 40, in the shoulder and striking a number of vehicles.
Murray then made his way to the church’s eastern entrance and fired several rounds through the doors. Larry Bourbannais, 59, was wounded.
Assam, who also spoke at a Colorado Springs press conference this afternoon, said she saw Murray coming through the doors, and took cover.
She then emerged and identified herself, “and I took him down.” Assam fired as many as six rounds at Murray.
Assam said she was praying to the “Holy Spirit” during the confrontation.
It is not known if Assam’s rounds killed Murray, said Colorado Springs police Sgt. Jeff Jensen. “She definitely wounded him but we don’t know if she was the cause of the fatal wound. We don’t know if there was a self-inflicted gunshot wound as well.”
Police found three weapons - the assault rifle, and two pistols, along with a backpack he carried containing ammo in clips.
The shootings after a service at the mega-church Sunday afternoon followed a bloodbath in the early morning hours at Youth With a Mission, a missionary training facility in Arvada.
Two Youth With a Mission staff members died after that shooting, and two more were wounded. Murray asked the staff to stay at the residence on the Faith Bible Chapel campus before the shootings.
When Tiffany Johnson, 26, the hospitality director, told him he wouldn’t be able to spend the night, he began shooting.
Johnson and the other staffers were going to suggest alternative places for him to stay before they were gunned down, Cheryl Morrison, wife of Faith Bible Chapel’s senior pastor said.
Johnson and Philip Crouse, 24, died after being taken to area hospitals. Dan Griebenow, 24 and Charlie Blanch, 22, were wounded.
Murray participated in a Youth With a Mission training program 5 years ago but his health barred him from doing field work and going further with the program, YWaM director Peter Warren said at a separate press conference in Arvada.
In the past few weeks, he sent string of messages expressing his discontent about the program to the program and its director, authorities said.
Earlier today, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appeared Murray “hated Christians.”
Murray is the son of a local neurologist who is a prominent researcher on multiple sclerosis.
Investigators, including a bomb squad, searched a home on East Berry Place in Arapahoe County on Sunday night, Murray’s last known address.
In 1990, Murray was registered as a home-schooled student with the Cherry Creek School District, said district spokeswoman Tustin Amole. He later took the Iowa test, a standard test given to third-graders nationwide at the time, said Amole. That is the last record that the district has of him.
Murray has something in common with the Works sisters who died at New Life. They too were home-schooled.
Murray’s later school history indicates a young man adrift. He attended Arapahoe Community College for a while, then quit. Last year he enrolled for a class at Colorado Christian University but dropped out immediately after enrolling.
I heard an interview with a young man that had roomed with Murray during his training at the Missionary training facility.
This fellow recounted how Murray had not actually been kicked out as was reported, but instead, was found to not be suited for the program by he, his family and the staff jointly.
He related how this normally quite individual had hidden issues.
First he recounted how he awoke one morning at five AM to find Murray talking to himself and he asked him what he was doing. Murray had responded that he was talking to “his voices” but not to worry as his voices liked the room mate.
Second he recounted a gathering where all were sharing holiday celebration songs and songs of praise and worship. Murray had offered two songs totally inappropriate for the gathering causing consternation of all present.
The first instance, the regular and accepted presence of “voices” talking to a young person is a very typical sign of clinical schizophrenia. People having this are typically going to have to be heavily managed with medication and supervisory confinement in order to avoid total hospitalization. Often young people that develop this condition begin to show it in the teens and twenties for the first time.
I always hesitate to give a pass, or cut slack, for mental illness but this issue of having present and observed conversation with "his voices" is a chilling symptom of very know behavior by very ill people. This is the Berowitz, Son-of-Sam type behavior where he had a dog that talked to him and insisted he do things.
His note, resembling the Colombine notes, is an example of lack of original or specific motivation relating to real incidents in his interaction with the groups he was viewing negatively.
If related, Matthew Murray would be of
the age to be Madelyn Murray’s grandson.
Wonder if there is a relationship to
William J. Murray?
Being the son of Dr. Jock Murray, the well regarded MS neurologist from OTTAWA, CA, would most likely make the son a Canadian.
The Ottawa doctor is the only MS neurologist that comes up when you google the name and MS neurologist.
Paranoid schizophrenia is also a really good catalyst. His parents may not be responsible, unless they failed to get treatment for him.
Methinks he hates his current circumstance, too.
Thank you!
I saw his posts to a website this AM on TV, concerning his desire to kill as many Christians as possible. It was a website for “former Pentecostals.” I don’t know if that means atheist or what.
Those ex-pentecostals are typically dangerous.
Superb posts. THank you.
Well, it just shows me that he wasn’t “letting go” of his former relationship to his church. It still bothered him a lot, as also evidenced by the hate mail he was sending.
I think “nuts” is the proper diagnosis.
Way nuts.
I just wish these nuts would kill themselves and leave an opus instead of pulling a columbine.
If it was a joke it wasn’t funny dude. Glad you’re pissed.
Well, at least your name is apt.
II:I'm with you, the remark was way out of line.
Only a leftist would call it a joke when caught red-handed as an anti-semite.
Perhaps he is unfamiliar with the fact that Jesus(Yah'shua) is a Jew!
I wonder how many “hardy har har’s” he would have gotten if he said a Catholic did it?
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