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Gunman Likely Raged On Web Between Attacks

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By GEORGE MERRITT The Associated Press

Published: December 12, 2007

DENVER - In between his two deadly shooting sprees, church gunman Matthew Murray apparently posted furious threats on the Internet to kill Christians. Whether the warnings reached police before he struck again was unclear Tuesday.

The warnings - and other anguished, despair-filled messages over the past few months - were posted by someone using the screen name "nghtmrchld26." The postings paint a picture of a home-schooled Colorado youth once affiliated with the Youth With a Mission program - as 24-year-old Murray had been.

"I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill," one threat posted Sunday by nghtmrchld26 said.

"God, I can't wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out. 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."

At least one visitor to the site contacted the FBI promptly, before the second attack, the site's administrator said. The FBI would not immediately confirm that.

In all, nghtmrchld26 made at least 11 posts between the two shootings on a site run by the Association of Former Pentecostals, a nonprofit group that says it was created to help people who have left Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

"It's time for me to head out and teach these expletive a lesson," another message said. "See you all on the other side, we're leaving this nightmare behind to a better place."

The last of the threatening messages was posted on the site at 9:55 a.m. or 10:55 a.m. - the time zone was not clear, said Joe Istre, the association's site administrator and president.

Either way, that was several hours after Murray killed two people at Youth With a Mission, a training center for missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada, and at least two hours before he killed two more people at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs at about 1 p.m.

An autopsy determined that Murray killed himself with a bullet to the head after he was brought down by gunfire from a volunteer security guard at the church, authorities said.

The guard, Jeanne Assam, talked about facing the killer with her handgun.

"I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me. I said, 'Holy Spirit, please be with me,'" said Assam, 42. "My hands weren't even shaking."

Assam, a volunteer security guard, credits God for helping her bring down the gunman.

"God was with me," Assam said. "He never left my side."

Sunday morning, before she went to church, Assam had read on the Internet about the shootings earlier at an Arvada missionary training center. It gave her chills, she said, and she prayed for the safety of her own church family.

Assam works full time for Messenger International, a local Christian ministry, and has a background in law enforcement.

About 1 p.m. Sunday, Assam was in the main hallway on the east side of the worship center when she heard gunshots.

"The shots were so loud, I thought he was inside," Assam said.

Murray then came through the doors, and Assam took cover.

"I identified myself, and engaged him, and took him down," Assam said.

"It just seemed like it was me, the gunman and God."

Though the shooter had more firepower - Assam had a handgun, while Murray wielded a high-powered rifle - God kept her safe, Assam said.

"I did not run away, and I didn't think for a minute to run away," Assam said. "I was given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse."

More details on how several victims died emerged Tuesday. The coroner's office said Stephanie Works, 18, and her sister Rachael, 16, were each killed by a single gunshot to the torso. They were shot outside New Life Church.

Tiffany Johnson, 26, was shot at the Arvada mission. She survived the ride to the hospital and tried to describe the gunman to an official in the ambulance, her father, Tom Johnson, said she had been shot eight times.

He was told his daughter died on the operating table.

Information from The Colorado Springs Gazette was used in this report.

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