I have read a cross-section of coverage via Google News. How the stories are "aimed" is a judgment call, and my judgment differs from yours. I don't see any animosity toward Ms. Amman nor any sympathy for Mr. Murray. Overall impression: Amman was an imperfect person (as are we all) who did a perfect thing when her skill and experience and education all met. Murray met her at the corner of Crazy Street and Stupid Drive.
The media are reporting now that Murray supposedly committed suicide. Yet that report defies all rational logic.
Precisely how? Suicide is the usual endgame for spree killers. The North Hollywood bank robbers had a plan to take themselves out rather than face capture. One died by his own hand, the other at the hand of the LAPD.
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris planned to die. The Virginia Tech shooter suicided. What you're describing as an anomaly is, in point of fact, the norm. The spree killers who don't kill themselves run out the door and force the police to kill them. Suicide by cop.
At the same time, why would a man on such a 'mission' arm himself with several weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and grenades, shoot only four people outside of the church on his way in, and then, upon entering the church and finding himself confronted by an armed woman, suddenly abandon his obvious plans to take down as many people as possible, and turn one of his weapons on himself? If he had a round at the ready, why would he not have used it to take down the armed person who was standing in the way of his completing his 'mission'?
He surely intended to die -- but if he were to die by his own hand, that event logically would have occurred after he had exhausted all possibilities of taking as many innocents along with him.
I do not believe Murray's death was self-inflicted. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition were not brought into that church on a lark. And he certainly didn't have a change of heart in midstream. He was taken out by someone who was aware of his plans and was not going to allow them to see fruition, even if it meant losing her own life in the process.
~ joanie