Fatal church shootings may be linked

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 9, 2007 at 8:51 p.m.
Updated December 9, 2007 at 8:51 p.m.

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Photo by Ahmad Terry © The Rocky

Police investigate a shooting at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs today after a gunman opened fire at worshipers this afternoon.

It was a day of worship and a day of unexplained violence — a shooting at a Christian missionary center in Arvada early Sunday and, barely 12 hours later, gunfire at a Colorado Springs church.

When it was over, four people — including the gunman in Colorado Springs — lay dead, and six others were wounded, several of them critically.

By Sunday evening, investigators in the two cities believed they might be linked.

"There is a reason to believe that," Arvada Police Chief Don Wick said, but he would not elaborate.

"Those are leads we're following up," he said.

The group that operates the Arvada center has a small office on the grounds of the Colorado Springs church.

Among the dead were a young woman from Minnesota and a young man from Alaska who came to Colorado to learn how to share their religious faith with others.

The first shooting, around 12:30 a.m., left two dead and two wounded at the Youth With A Mission center in Arvada. The second, just after 1 p.m. at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, left a parishioner dead and four others injured and ended when a security guard shot and killed the trench-coat-wearing gunman.

"They came to church with their families to worship, and what happened today was a tragedy," New Life's senior pastor Brady Boyd said of those cut down by bullets. "As a pastor, my heart is broken today for people that lost their lives."

Investigators in Arvada and Colorado Springs were working together in an effort to determine the relationship between the two shootings.

The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting in the investigation — several suspicious devices were found at the Colorado Springs church.

And while the link between the two incidents was tenuous Sunday, it was clear that two acts of violence at places of faith unnerved many people.

"I was completely shocked that someone would try to do this at a church," a shaken Ashley Gibbs said Sunday, several hours after witnessing the Colorado Springs shooting.

Gov. Bill Ritter called on Coloradans to "voice a collective sense of outrage." And U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar found it "incomprehensible that such atrocities could occur in places of faith and worship."

It was about 12:30 a.m. Sunday when a young man — described by one witness as a "regular kid" — knocked on the door at the Youth With A Mission center, 12750 W. 63rd Ave., and asked if he could use the bathroom. Once inside the center, part of an international Christian missionary training program, he asked if he could spend the night.

As he stood in a common area, the young man — described as in his 20s, wearing a dark jacket and dark beanie style hat — asked if he could spend the night.

Tiffany Johnson, the hospitality director, told the man that the building was not a shelter and that he could not stay there. According to Peter Warren, director of Youth with A Mission Denver, the man's response was swift.

"Then this is what I've got for you," the gunman reportedly said, and opened fire.

Warren, who was not there, was given a detailed description of what happened by other students.

The gunman fled.

Johnson, a 26-year-old from Minnesota, and Philip Crouse, 24, of Alaska, both died shortly after the shooting. Dan Griebenow, 24, of South Dakota, was in critical condition and Charlie Blanch, 22, was in fair condition.

Several of those who were at the center recognized the gunman — he had hung out at the center on Saturday, said Cheryl Morrison, whose husband, George Morrison, is pastor of the Faith Bible Chapel, located about 300 yards away.

"A terrible tragedy has taken place in our community," said Arvada Mayor Bob Free.

The investigation into the Arvada shooting was in full force when trouble was reported at 1:13 p.m. at New Life Church, located at 11025 Voyager Parkway on the north end of Colorado Springs.

Gibbs was heading to her car when she saw a man walking toward the east entrance firing shots from a "big" gun.

Inside the church, Boyd — who took over as senior pastor 31/2 months ago — heard gunshots.

"What I observed from my window was surreal," Boyd said, without elaborating.

The man shot five people — one who died at the church, and four others who were taken to area hospitals — before an armed security officer confronted him.

That officer shot and killed the gunman and probably, in the estimation of Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers, "saved many lives today."

New Life was founded by the Rev. Ted Haggard, who was fired last year after a former male prostitute alleged the two had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship.

Haggard, then the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, admitted committing undisclosed "sexual immorality."

The church is one of Colorado's largest with about 10,000 members.

Boyd was hired in August to take over for Haggard.

All four of those who were shot in Arvada were staff members at Youth With A Mission, said Paul Filidis, a Colorado Springs-based spokesman for the group.

Youth With A Mission was started in 1960 as a way to get young people involved in short-term Christian missionary work. The organization now has more than 16,000 staff members in 1,180 centers. It trains more than 25,000 people annually.

About 300 young people are trained each year at the center in Arvada, Filidis said.

Staffers are usually former missionaries themselves, and the "mercy ministries" performed by trainees include orphanage work, he said.

Mimi Martin, who lives near the center, had received a call from police about 9 a.m. warning her to keep her doors and windows locked.

"Why would anybody want to hurt those kids?" Martin asked. "I just pray for their families."

The dormitory is on the campus of the Faith Bible Chapel, but is not affiliated with the church.

Worshippers who bundled up against freezing cold attended Sunday services at the sanctuary, about 300 yards from the dormitory, and police investigators maintained tight security on the chapel grounds.

As authorities searched for answers to two crimes that defied explanation, perhaps nothing illustrated just how bizarre the day was than a plea issued by Arvada Police Chief Don Wick.

All faith-based communities, he said, should be on the lookout for trouble.

Rocky staff writers Julie Poppen, Jean Torkelson, John C. Ensslin and Ivan Moreno as well as the Associated Press, CBS4 News and The Gazette contributed to this report.

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