Colorado Gunman's Death Ruled A Suicide

(CBS/AP)  The man who killed four people at a church and missionary training center in Colorado died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound, police said Tuesday.

Matthew Murray, 24, was struck multiple times by a security officer at New Life Church Sunday but died after firing a single shot at himself, the El Paso County Coroner's Office concluded after an autopsy.

CBS News affiliate KKTV reports that Murray was hit 3 to 4 times in his legs and his wrist. One shot may have even hit the gun he was holding, which he then used to take his life.

The coroner's report also officially ruled the deaths of Stephanie and Rachael Works homicides, saying that each of the young women were killed by a single shot to the torso.

Volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam shot Murray after he entered the church. Investigators had earlier suggested his death could have been a suicide, but credited Assam's bravery with averting a greater tragedy.

Assam, a 42-year-old former Minneapolis police officer, said her faith allowed her to remain steady under pressure.

"It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," she said, her hands trembling as she recounted the shooting during a news conference.

The first attack Sunday took place at Youth With a Mission, a training center for missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada; the other occurred about 12 hours later at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

Officials said revenge was one apparent motive for the attacks. Police said Murray had sent hate mail to the Youth With a Mission center in the last few weeks after being removed from the program years ago.

In a statement, the training center said health problems kept Murray from finishing the program, but elaborated little. Murray did not complete the lecture phase or a field assignment as part of a 12-week program, Youth With a Mission said.

Authorities also believe he authored an anti-Christian diatribe online that closely repeated a rant by one of the Columbine killers, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The most recent post to the site, a forum for people who have left evangelical religious groups, was Sunday morning in the hours between his attacks in Arvada and Colorado Springs, according to KUSA-TV in Denver, which first reported on the writings.

"You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray wrote, according to the station, which did not identify the site. "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world."

The language in the post is almost identical to the text of a manifesto written by Eric Harris, one of the teens who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, The Denver Post reported.

The station said Murray's posts were removed from the site after Sunday's killings, and that authorities were aware of them and investigating. Police in Colorado Springs and Arvada would not comment on the writings.

In a search warrant affidavit, investigators said Murray attended a home-based computer school and worked at his computer for three to five hours a day for the past two years. Police said Murray's only previous brush with the law was a traffic ticket earlier this year.

His relatives said they were grief-stricken and baffled.

"We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief," said Phil Abeyta, Murray's uncle, who read a statement from the family Monday.

Also Tuesday, Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said Assam was fired from the Minneapolis force in 1997 for lying during an internal investigation. Sgt. John Delmonico, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said police were investigating a complaint that Assam swore at a bus driver while she was handling an incident on a city bus.

[gunownerdan]

ttinsly,
Banks have armed security guards to protect money.
Why shouldn''t lives be worth protecting as much as money is?
Besides, I think the gaurds were there "just in case" because of the shooting the previous day at the other religious place.

[mailrick-2009]

Church''s hiring gun molls. Interesting.

[r3alist]

Obviously the security gaurd who shot him was a volunteer... if the gun control fascists had their way it would have been illegal for her to have had possession of a gun... therefore if gun control had its way many more would have died.

[gunownerdan]

jumkey,
So, let''s get rid of that pesky second amendment.
We''ve already lost a lot of the rest of the constitution so one more amendment won''t really make much of a difference anyway, right?
I will gladly give up my guns, as soon as the police and the military give up theirs.

[jumkey]

gunownerdan: I''m talking about *personal* experience. I''ve never been herded into a train car to be transported to a concentration camp. Nor has anyone I''ve known, so your analogy is moot.

I have however known people who have shot their neighbors, shot their children and shot complete strangers. That is the people I''m talking about.

You are obviously willing to accept that tens of thousands of Americans will lose their lives this year to salve your irrational fears. I choose not to.

[gunownerdan]

"Those who beat swords to plowshares will find themselves plowing for those who don''t."
Ben Franklin

[jumkey]

Then 99% of Americans are irrational idiots.

I prefer to believe otherwise.

And if I''m wrong, that 99% of Americans are irrational idiots that doesn''t change the fact that I belong to the 1% who aren''t.

Truth doesn''t depend upon the number of people who believe it.

[gunownerdan]

jumkey said:
"there are virtually no circumstance that any private citizen needs a weapon"

During the 20th century alone, over 100,000,000 defenseless civilians were murdered by their own governments just because of their race, religion, or political affiliation. In almost all cases, these people were first disarmed by their government "for the common good". When you give a government a monopoly on weapons, you give them a monopoly on power and power corrupts. Plain and simple. Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, I can go on and on. Killers love defenseless victims.
Guns have always been available to civilians in America yet all these homicidal nutcases randomly shooting at innocent citizens is a relatively new thing. Guns by themselves are really not to blame.

[jumkey]

incog-nito: I don''t give a *** what "Americans as a whole tolerate". If they tolerate 6 children being shot on a bus and 4 people killed in a church then "Americans as a whole" are complete and total idiots.

There is no in-between, mainly as I am not a gun owner and have absolutely no reason I can think of to own one. None. And I''ve *never* in 47 years *ever* needed a weapon - and neither has *anyone* I''ve know.

Given the level of gun violence in this country it is irrational to own or advocate the ownership of a weapon. This doesn''t change even if 99% of Americans are in favor of it.

[jumkey]

gunownerdan: there are no responsible gun owners, as far as I know, because there are virtually no circumstance that any private citizen needs a weapon - except for circumstances created by the easy availability of weapons. Quite the circular argument in my opinion.
"
We are awash in handguns in this country, with random murders committed against innocent bystanders on almost a weekly basis. Saying "we need more guns" in the hands of more people is insanity defined, ala "people are speeding and roadway have increased as a result so lets increase the speed limit to lower the number of accidents".