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Coroner: Murray killed himself

Rocky Mountain News

Published December 11, 2007 at 12:18 p.m.
Updated December 11, 2007 at 2:35 p.m.

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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.

Photo by 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

  • December 11, 2007

    1:26 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    olsonmt writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    1:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    maco writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    2:14 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    sundown writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    2:25 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ItsJustme writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    2:27 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    JustSayin writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    2:30 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    davies writes:

    She can guard me any day.

  • December 11, 2007

    2:35 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RobK writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    3:12 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    I_Slay_The_Dragon writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    4:08 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    CDee writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    5 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    kemguru writes:

    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.

  • December 11, 2007

    6:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Uno writes:

    She is a hero, period. She stepped up to the plate few others would have, and done a fine job in an extreme situation.

  • December 11, 2007

    9:01 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    photo writes:

    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.