Posted on 12/10/2007 12:22:31 PM PST by Reagan Man
The New Life Church shooting tore apart a close-knit and deeply religious family, killing two of four teenage children and wounding the father, relatives said today.
The dead are 18-year-old Stephanie Works and her sister, 16-year-old Rachael Works. They were described by their uncle, Mark Schaepe of Lincoln, Neb, as outgoing cheerful, faithful and smart.
“It teaches you that life is precious,” he said.
The Works sisters are survived by their parents, David Works, who was shot twice in the attack and remained hospitalized in fair condition; and Marie Works, along with two sisters. The other victims of Sunday’s shootings include:
-Judy Purcell, 40, who suffered a gunshot wound to the right shoulder. She was treated at the hospital and released. -Larry Bourbannais, 59, who suffered a gunshot wound to the left forearm. He was treated at the hospital and released.
The shooting followed an attack on a Denver-area missionary training center that left two people dead. Police investigators focused on a 24-year-old Arapahoe County man who lives at a house that was first searched before the second shooting Sunday.
Law enforcement sources have told KCNC television in Denver that the gunman found dead in the New Life Church in Matthew J. Murray, one of two sons of Denver-area neurosurgeon Ronald S. Murray.
Police agencies first arrived at the Murray home in the 10900 block of East Berry Place before noon Sunday and searched until before dawn today.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson confirmed his agency’s bomb squad was dispatched to the home about 7:15 Sunday night. He said his agency was supporting Arvada and Colorado Springs police who were executing a search warrant at the house. Police took several boxes of items from the home.
Ronald Murray’s Lone Tree medical office was closed this morning.
“Dr. Murray’s office is closed and he will not be available until further notice,” a phone recording said.
The gunman died at the scene in the parking lot. New Life Pastor Brady Boyd said church officials consider the attack on New Life a random act.
“We don’t know the shooter. He has no connection to our church,” he said.
Schaepe said family members suspect that the shooter could have targeted the girls because they were involved heavily with Youth With a Mission and had frequented the Arvada training center for the missionary group where two people were shot to death hours before the New Life attack.
The girls had gone on a mission trip to China with Youth With a Mission last year, Schaepe said.
Police in Arvada have said the two cases are likely linked.
Colorado Springs Police scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. to offer additional details. Boyd said he’s most concerned for “the family that lost two teenage daughters.”
“You can imagine what the parents are going through, losing two children by coming to church,” he said. “I’m asking Colorado Springs and the country, please pray for that family because they’re going through a hard time.”
Schaepe said the Works family, which moved to Denver from Montana in the mid-1990s, is deeply religious and home-schooled the four girls.
He said the family gravitated to New Life and had become heavily involved in church life. “They felt at home in that particular group,” he said.
Schaepe said he hadn’t talked to the girls’ mother, Marie, but said family members were on the way from Nebraska to stay with her and the surviving children.
An official at the Dayton Meadows Apartments in Aurora, where the Works live, declined to answer questions about the family and asked media to leave the property today. The complex, a series of three-floor brick-and-wood buildings with a sign advertising “Two Bedrooms Free Rent” in an apartment-heavy area, sat quiet this morning.
Boyd said the security guard who killed the shooter was a “hero” whose actions had averted further bloodshed. He said she is normally his personal security guard, but on Sunday was stationed in the middle of a church rotunda, on the lookout for danger following reports of a shooting at a Christian ministry near Denver earlier in the day that left two dead. He said she is “highly trained” and has a background in law enforcement but is not currently a law enforcement officer.
Boyd said 15-20 volunteer church members regularly work as security guards on New Life’s 38-acre campus. The church has had a emergency response and evacuation plan in place for several years, he said.
“That’s the reality of our world. None of us grew up in a church where that was a reality, but today it is,” he said.
Boyd said the church might have been a target because of its high profile in the city, adding there might be some connection with the ousting last year of founder and former pastor Ted Haggard.
Boyd said he had visited and prayed with the victim’s family in the hospital.
Woodmen Valley Chapel, another large church in Colorado Springs, offered crisis counseling for people who are distraught over the shootings. The counseling is available at the church’s Rockrimmon Campus Community Center, 290 E. Woodmen Road. For details, call 599-8652.
“Obviously the trauma that happened yesterday will take a long time to get through,” Boyd said. “But this is a strong church.”
I find it amazing that our Country has advanced so much that we need armed guards at our churches. This is crazy stuff.
THIS is what the MSM should be focusing on if they had a single ounce, one cintilla of true jounalism left in their collective system. This is the news, along with he attack itself, that should be grabbing healines:
"ARMED HEROINE PREVENTS SLAUGHTER AT CHURCH BY SHOOTING THE ATTACKER DEAD"
Thank God that pastor there LISTENED to the inspiration he felt regarding protecting his flock, and then ACTED on it that morning by getting the additional security in place, which included, among other things as I understand it, getting his people to safe places within the church, each group protected by an armed security guard, and getting them out of the line of fire...as well as having this particular security guard near him who was able (and WILLING) to react to the attack by taking the fight directly to the perp and taking him down.
Without such actions and plan, there would have been a much, much more horrific body count I am afraid...which just punctuates the point of arming the people so they can stop such attacks as they develop.
I would love to know more about the security guard’s background...especially since she is the Pastor’s personal bodyguard.
That’s a large campus and a lot of guards. Thanks for the new info.
I believe she was an ex-police officer.
It’s the payoff for kicking God out of the schools.
I’m not surprised to see how the situation was resolved was buried near the bottom of the story. What does surprise me is that a pastor in this country feels the need for a personal bodyguard.
uh-oh. don’t say that. the anti-coppers will come out and the “don’t tase me, bro” pictures will be flying!
From the National Terror Alert web center:
Colorado New Life Church Shooting Suspect Identified As Matt Murray - Matthew J. Murray
December 10, 2007
Matt Murray 24, son of a Denver Neurologist and living with his parents in their Englewood home, has been identified as the shooter in the Colorado Church shootings at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.
Police are expected to confirm his identity at a scheduled 3:00pm news conference.
Authorities searched a home in the Denver suburb of Englewood early Monday, seeking any link between two deadly shooting sprees at Christian religious centers in Colorado Springs and Arvada.
Neighbors said the family has lived at that home for 10-plus years and has two sons, one of which attends a religious school. A Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman said that Murray was homeschooled and she doesn’t have any record of him attending a high school in the area or receiving a diploma.
Murray lives with his father, a neurologist with a practice in Lone Tree, his mother and brother.
Developing…
Makes you wonder.
From what I've seen and heard elsewhere, this young lady was not a paid security guard--at least for the church. I haven't seen elsewhere that she was a guard for the pastor.
Even CNN is recognizing that she "probably saved many lives." According to what I have read, when she learned of the shooting at the other church, she decided to stay outside and watch things a bit.
Their pastor talked about it earlier on the news. Their security is all volunteer. He started to say that this lady was “his personal body”..............then stopped and changed subjects.
Certainly a lot of fog of war right now...but it will become clearer in the days to come. Either way, having that armed woman, and potentially others, in place who could interdict the perp is the policy that works.
Who needs the myths associated with religion? After all, we are all here through random acts of nature.
< /sarcasm >
thanks RC2....I’m so glad that she was also the amount of training needed for the courage and bravery. I’m praying that she’s doing okay...
I wondered last night if the Rev. Haggard’s connection with this church might be linked in any way to the shootings. I’m sure the church having security guards had something to do with Rev. Haggard too (previous threats, media, etc).
So sad for the families.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of a pastor having a bodyguard...
During the 2006 Promise Keepers meeting in Tacoma, WA, I was one of the volunteer drivers for the events. Rick Kingman, who was at the time the senior pastor at Overlake Christian Church, came to the event with two gentlemen in dark suits and radios in their ears. I asked why they were with him, and one of my supervisors informed me that he had threats against him and his family after making a strong anti-homosexual statement not long before.
For the next two days, everywhere he was, they were too. No one tried anything, AFAIK. About 6 months later, Kingman resigned quite suddenly as senior pastor, citing that he had “other things” he felt God wanted him to do. There weren’t any rumors of scandal, and no one has/had made any kind of accusations, but the move seemed strange.
Good point about the fog, Jeff. Many reports have said the perp was 50 ft inside the church, but this one says he died in the parking lot. The parking lot scenario makes sense, but time will tell.
I keep seeing conflicting reports, some say Arvada and others say Arvata. Does anyone know whch it is? I have a sister (who has teen kids) in Arvada, and she does work at a Christian facility there.
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