Another Victim Dies In Colo. Shootings

(AP)  A gunman shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver early Sunday, killing two, after being told he couldn't spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles away in Colorado Springs, a gunman fatally shot a parishioner at a megachurch and wounded four other people before a guard killed him, police said.

One of the hospitalized victims from the second attack died Sunday at about 10:10 p.m., said Amy Sufak, a spokeswoman for Penrose Community Hospital in Colorado Springs.

The police chief in Arvada, a suburb about 15 miles west of Denver where the mission workers were shot, said the shootings may be related to those in Colorado Springs but declined to elaborate. Authorities say no one has been captured in connection with the Arvada shootings.

The gunman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs was shot and killed by a church security guard after entering the church's main foyer with high-powered rifle shortly before 1 p.m. and opening fire, Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers said. Four others were wounded, Myers said.

The church's 11 a.m. service had recently ended, and hundreds of people were milling about when the gunman opened fire. Nearby were parents picking up their children from the nursery.

Police arrived to find that the gunman had been killed by a member of the church's armed security staff, Myers said.

"There was a courageous staff member who probably saved many lives here today," Myers said.

Gov. Bill Ritter ordered state authorities to help investigate. The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting, and officers combed the church campus looking for suspicious devices.

Three of the injured were taken to Penrose Community Hospital in Colorado Springs, said hospital spokeswoman Amy Sufak. One person was critical, she said. It wasn't known where the fourth injured person was being treated.

New Life was founded by the Rev. Ted Haggard, who was fired last year after a former male prostitute alleged he had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with him. Haggard, then the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, admitted committing undisclosed "sexual immorality."

The New Life church is one of Colorado's largest with about 10,000 members. The mission training program in Arvada has a small office at the church's World Prayer Center on the New Life campus.

About 7,000 people were on the Colorado Springs campus at the time of the shooting, Boyd said. Security at the church had been beefed up after the early morning shootings in Arvada, he said.

That shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. at the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada, a Denver suburb, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said.

A man and a woman were killed and two men were wounded, Medina said. All four were staff members of the center, said Paul Filidis, a Colorado Springs-based spokesman with Youth With a Mission.

Arvada Police Chief Bob Wick, asked whether he believed there was reason to think the shootings are related, responded, "Yes, there is reason to believe that."

Wick said the suspect spent several minutes speaking with people inside the dorm. Peter Warren, director of Youth With a Mission Denver, said the man asked whether he could spend the night. Several youths called on Tiffany Johnson, the center's director of hospitality.

"The director of hospitality was called. That's when he opened fire," Warren said. Johnson, 26, was killed.

Warren said he didn't know whether any of the students or staff knew the gunman. "We don't know why" he came to the dormitory, Warren said.

Witnesses told police that the gunman was a 20-year-old white male, wearing a dark jacket and skull cap, who had a handgun and left on foot. He may have glasses or a beard.

Police with dogs searched the area through the night, and residents of nearby homes were notified by reverse 911 to be on the lookout. Medina said residents were asked to look out their windows for any tracks left in the snow during the night. About 4 inches of snow had fallen in the area in the past day.

In addition to Johnson, killed in Arvada was Philip Crouse, 24. Youth With a Mission said Johnson was from Minnesota and Crouse was from Alaska.

The missionary center identified the wounded as Dan Griebenow, 24, of South Dakota, and Charlie Branch, 22, whose hometown wasn't immediately known. One of the men was in critical condition, and the other was stable, police said.

The missionary center is on the grounds of the Faith Bible Chapel. Cheril Morrison, wife of chapel pastor George Morrison, said Crouse had just hung up Christmas lights at her home and that Johnson was "an amazingly beautiful person."

Mimi Martin, who lives near the center, said she received the warning call at about 9 a.m. warning neighbors to keep their doors and windows locked.

"Why would anybody want to hurt those kids?" Martin said.

Darv Smith, director of a Youth With a Mission center in Boulder, said people ranging from their late teens to their 70s undergo a 12-week course that prepares them to be missionaries. He said the center trains about 300 people a year.

Filidis said staffers are usually former missionaries themselves and that the "mercy ministries" performed by trainees include orphanage work. He said he didn't know where the group being trained in Arvada was going to be sent.

Youth With a Mission was started in 1960 and now has 1,100 locations with 16,000 full-time staff, Smith said. The Arvada center was founded in 1984.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Call on Jesus to save you. Then you can talk to God in real prayer. The kind of prayer that can bring solace to these families life''s that were turned upside down through someone who was bent on being self centered.
This is a real solution to a real problem.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Why is it people fight so vehemently saying there is no God. It sounds like they do believe but have not decided to say no to self and yes to Him. They see there self in reality so if they would say yes to Jesus they would see His power in their lives in reality. Go ahead and put this to a test. This is what it is meant to make a decision for Christ.
Its only when we admit we are self centered and cry out for Jesus to come into our lives to change us with His power This is when this actually becomes a reality. Not to be good because this would defeat your admission for His help for you. He will then direct you by His spirit.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Yes we people are self centered. So yes there is a devil virginia. And "Yes" and how great that yes is shouted there is a God who hears and sees the choices people make. We can make choices to turn from self with Christs power in us. This is Christianity in a nutshell. There is hope that can come from within to help us in our time of need. So please pray with me for these families of tragic circumstances this past few weeks. I would think even the staunchest anti christ people would want comfort for these families.

[bennyblack1]

And even a non-Christian, if this had happened to one of his own, a family member, a wife, a child, a friend, would want justice. He would also cry out to a higher power for justice.

[bennyblack1]

Children should be taught correctly about Jesus Christ. They should be taught the wisdom of the 10 Commandments. They should be taught how to treat one another. They should be taught morals and lessons that help them to understand the consequences of breaking the laws of God, those that DO NOT change. Don''t you people remember that a 10 year old kid brought a gun to school in Michigan one day, and shot his classmate? Did you know that he had not been taught what murder was? And that he had no remorse? This is what taking God and Jeus Christ out of America does. It creates a moral vacuum. When you have a moral vacuum the human mind tends to become a catch all for evil, WHAT WE ARE SEEING RIGHT NOW!

[bennyblack1]

jMcGilvray;
I have a challenge for you. I want you HONESTLY read the Bible. That doesn''t seem like a challenge, does it? Well, here''s the trick. You have to read it with YOUR OWN MIND. You can''t skip through the tulips and build an entire philosophy on one or two verses. Then, when you''re done, THEN come and tell me who REALLY was screwed up? Was it the people, or God? Was the religious leaders or the religion? Was it the people who crucified Jesus or Jesus?
Now, from what I read, the answer to every question is THE PEOPLE.

[bennyblack1]

Well, ya know, Jesus DID tell Christians to buy weapons to protect themselves these last days due to the persecution that will come against them. These weapons are for PROTECTION only. They are not for killing. Another command in Revelations is that we are NOT to kill, because an old law will be reactivated, and that is "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." In other words, "what goes around comes around" will become a horrible reality.

[swwils]

When they catch these chicken S.H.I.T.S,befoe they kill them selves give them out law justice take em out bck and hang them,not 20 yrs down the road right now!

[whatithink-2009]

Red States Gone Wild!

[searingtruth]

"I understand. For I have been disappointed also. Humanity, overall, almost always disappoints me. However humans, individually, almost always fill me with hope. This has led me to the conviction that humanity is good; it is our organization and ideologies that have proven pitifully and woefully ineffective and inadequate."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com