Posted on 12/13/2007 11:44:15 AM PST by colorcountry
KSL News has learned the man who went on a shooting rampage at two Colorado church properties had been baptized into the LDS Church a year ago.
Matthew Murray killed four people and wounded several others Sunday, before he turned the gun on himself. He targeted people at two Christian churches, posting anti-religion messages online before the shootings. But a year ago, he welcomed religion in his life, according to one man who taught Murray about the Latter-day Saint faith.
A.J. Ormond was there the day Matthew Murray was baptized. He says he immediately noticed a change; Murray seemed happy, calm, at peace. It was a demeanor that changed dramatically in just a year.
"He seemed like a normal person, maybe a little sheltered." That's how A.J. Ormond remembers Matthew Murray, the man police say shot and killed two at a Youth with Mission Center in Arvada, then two sisters at a New Life Church in Colorado Springs 12 hours later.
Before the attacks, he posted hate-filled messages online like "You Christians brought this on yourselves," and "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you... as I can."
"I think everybody goes through 'Is there anything I could have done? Anything?'", Ormond said.
Ormond met Murray in November 2006 in Colorado. Murray wanted to learn more about the LDS church. Ormond and his wife worked with the missionaries in their ward.
"I think he was interested in learning about all religions, trying to figure out what fit him and his beliefs and finding somewhere where he could fit in," Ormond said.
Ormond describes Murray as polite and friendly, a young man who, despite his family's protests, was seriously contemplating devoting his life to the LDS Church. Murray's experience with the LDS Church culminated with his baptism. Soon after, he stopped going to church; and just a little over a year later, Murray was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to his head following a shootout with a security guard.
The photos of him splashed on TV were easily recognizable to Ormond; his motives, though, a mystery. Ormond said, "It was obvious that it wasn't the person we had known that had committed those shootings and those murders."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement saying, "We checked our records, and they confirm that Matthew Murray of Englewood, Colorado, was baptized about a year ago."
Beyond that, the church said it would have no comment.
oh boy here we go
This guy was terminally messed up, no way his behavior is a commentary on anything but his own soul.
What about diet or drugs?
Ok. So what?
This was an obviously sick and twisted kid- REGARDLESS of what he thought he believed.
Thanks for showing us that there was no cover-up.
I guess that Temple Recommend is on hold.
Murray's childhood seems to have been remembered by him in a fashion that reinforced his suicidal thought patterns. One thread Murray wrote about was of him being the "Prophetic Child."
"Prophetic Child"
Since I was at least age 6 my mother and her church friends have always told me about how my birth was "foretold." They say that while I was still in my mother's womb a "prophet" told my mother that I was to be, quote, "a prophet to the nations" and something along the lines of the next Billy Graham/Peter Wagner.[quoted at Copycat Effect -- Church Shooter: Prophetic Child ]
They said that the following verses applied to me: Mat. 12.18 and Ezk. 36:26-28
Basically, they believe that I am their "chosen one" for "the end times" and according to the Ezekial passage they believe that I am going to go back to their church/system.
The problem right now is the fact that it appears that they are always going to pursue me throughout life (and they have said so), as I am supposedly the "chosen one." As far as I can tell they did not treat the other youth the same way.
Well, I don't want to be their "chosen one" at all. I just wish I could find some way to wake up from this nightmare.
~ nghtmrchld26, 9/7/07 9:13 pm, on the Ex Pentecostal Forums - Message Board - ezboard.com.
That is sad.
Bet he endorsed Mitt. He musta loved Mitt’s support for gun control — more easy targets.
This is a MSM dig against a certain Pres candidate... read between the lines here!
Another way to make the Mormon’s look bad? This guy had problems that, probably, no one could help.
I was reading some of the forums postings from this kid yesterday. He posted on an ex Pentecostal site. Appeared to be a very disturbed young man.
Hardly. KSL is owned by the LDS Church.
The scratchy sacred underwear drove him to it.
I wonder how much of this is true.
I don’t doubt that his parents were committed Christians with great hopes for their kids. But they thought he was some kind of promised Messiah? Maybe so, maybe no.
There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that his failures in religion bugged him, but ultimately the responsibility was his own, I think.
The same with this Mormon angle. It’s part of the same effort to belong, coupled with a failure to belong, that was disappointed when he wasn’t chosen for the missionary deal. He tries, he fails, and he blames others, including the victims he shot.
Better for the LDS to go ahead and put the info out there, IMHO. Mitt isn’t my man, yet this shouldn’t be twisted as a dig to him.
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