Coroner: Murray killed himself
Rocky Mountain News
Originally published 12:18 p.m., December 11, 2007
Updated 02:35 p.m., December 11, 2007
Photo by Courtesy photo: Richard Werner
Courtesy photo: Richard Werner
Matthew Murray plays the keyboards during a 2002 Christmas celebration performance of dark rock songs that alarmed some classmates at an Arvada missionary program. Five days later he agreed to leave the program.
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Church gunman Matthew Murray committed suicide, the El Paso County Coroner’s Office ruled today.
The coroner's office said in a release that it had completed autopsies on the three people who died in the shootings Sunday at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.
Murray was shot multiple times by church security officer Jeanne Assam before he fired a single, fatal round at himself, the autopsy showed.
Teenage sisters Stephanie and Rachel Works each died of a single gunshot to their torsos and their deaths were ruled homicides.
Investigators had suggested Monday that Murray, 24, may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police and church leaders credited Assam’s bravery with averting a greater tragedy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments
Posted by olsonmt on December 11, 2007 at 1:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you to the Rocky for more clearly reporting the coroner's findings than other outlets. Mrs. Assam is still a hero and this man died when he did because she confronted him and returned fire. Other people are already implying she shot him as he lay dead.
Posted by maco on December 11, 2007 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Lets get things in perspective, Assam was hired to do a job and was trained to kill if indeed she is a ex-cop. She did what she was hired to do and she did her job. That doesn't make her a hero.
Posted by sundown on December 11, 2007 at 2:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'll stick with calling Assam a hero. By maco's logic there are no heroes: Firemen, policemen, soldiers, even Superman himself are all just doing their jobs. Even the mom who lifts a car off her child is just doing what all moms should do. Not an overly grateful way to view the world, but to each his own.
Posted by ItsJustme on December 11, 2007 at 2:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Actually, my understanding is that she is a volunteer (read not paid) security guard. Regardless, she is a hero even if she was paid. She put herself in harm's way without regard to her own safety.
Posted by JustSayin on December 11, 2007 at 2:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Logic and perspective don't matter too much to most who post comments, maco. I agree with you that she was doing her job, but she did it well, and it sounds like she did it far better than two other male guards who seemed to have frozen in fear. I'd have to call that heroic.
Hopefully in the next day or so the RMN will put a good comprehensive article together from all the pieces and parts they've been dribbling out piecemeal the past two days. The story about the two guards who froze up was told by the victim who was shot in the arm.
Posted by davies on December 11, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
She can guard me any day.
Posted by RobK on December 11, 2007 at 2:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
She was an unpaid volunteer and member of the church, as many other sources have reported. She hasn't been a LEO for 10 years, having left the Minneapolis PD in 1997. She was a private citizen with a concealed carry permit.
Even if the punk did kill himself, he wouldn't have done it so soon if she hadn't shot him. He would have waited until he'd shot a lot of people.
Let's compare and contrast the Omaha mall with the Colorado Springs church incidents. In the Omaha mall, no one was armed, and the shooter shot people until he decided he was done, then killed himself. In Colorado Springs, the shooter shot until he was shot in return, and his spree ended early.
Posted by I_Slay_The_Dragon on December 11, 2007 at 3:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This, and the other "rampages" of late, are case-studies in
Spiritual Warfare. Note, in most incidents, the suicide-induced
endings. Undoubtedly, the calling-card, of The Adversary. In the Spiritual battlefield, apparently the Denver region, needs to launch a serious counter-offensive, lest the manifestations
continue. Ah, Denver. So much potential, so little love.
And Love, conquers ALL.
Posted by CDee on December 11, 2007 at 4:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I for one am thankful that he shot himself. As cool and collected as she was yesterday, some day she would have to face the fact that she took a life, deserved or not. Now she can know that while she stopped him, she did not kill him.
Posted by kemguru on December 11, 2007 at 5 p.m. (Suggest removal)
My thoughts exactly, CDee.
No question that she stopped him in his tracks and saved many lives. When I heard he just finished it for her, I was happy for Ms. Assam.
Posted by Uno on December 11, 2007 at 6:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
She is a hero, period. She stepped up to the plate few others would have, and done a fine job in an extreme situation.
Posted by photo on December 11, 2007 at 9:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Jeanne Assam's only objective last Sunday morning was to STOP THE ATTACK. If gunman Matthew Murray was shot up badly enough from her defense of church members that he decided to break off the attack and shoot himself, then she succeeded. She put her life on the line to save others at the tipping point in the attack (he was about to get loose in the church) when others were doing nothing to end the assault. That makes her a hero... and a very brave one at that.
Posted by Reality_Check on December 11, 2007 at 9:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess this means that god-fearing, church-going Matthew Murray is a "HERO" for stopping that crazy gunman ...
... and somewhere in there must be room for attribution to "a miracle from God" ...
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