New Life Church
(Photo: © sparky05/Flickr)

A 24-year-old killed four people with links to YWAM in Colorado, USA, last Sunday.

It has been confirmed by Youth With A Mission (YWAM) that the shooter responsible for the deaths of two of its staff at its missionary training campus in Arvada, a suburb of Denver, and later of two teenage girls at the New Life Church, Colorado Springs, was Matthew Murray, 24, from Englewood.

He shot Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24, and wounded Charlie Blanch and Dan Griebenow at the training centre in the early hours of Sunday morning, 9 December.

Two hours later and 65 miles away, he opened fire again as the congregation of the New Life Church was filing out of the building.

Sisters Stephanie and Rachel Works, aged 18 and 16 respectively, were killed before Mr Murray was himself shot dead by a female volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam, a former policewoman.

The sisters were involved with a summer outreach organised by New Life Church and a ministry of YWAM which rents office space in the New Life campus.

Murray had enrolled in a Discipleship Training School (DTS) at Arvada in 2002 but did not complete the programme.

The DTS is a 12-week classroom course followed by a 12-week field assignment, usually to another culture.

The goal of the programme is to form Christian character and help students to discover their unique, God-given talents.

Cross-cultural exposure and global awareness are special emphases throughout such courses.
 
Murray did not complete the lecture phase of his DTS or participate in the field assignment because the programme directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to take part in the latter.

Mr Murray's relatives issued a statement of apology for his actions and the resulting deaths.

It said: "Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims and families of this tragedy.  On behalf of our family, and our son, we ask for forgiveness.

"We cannot understand why this has happened."

Mr Murray is said to come from a deeply Christian family.

YWAM has extended "a spirit of forgiveness" to the Murray family.

Matthew Murray's motives for the killings are not yet known.

CMS Regional Director Phil Simpson's son Jonny had coincidentally attended worship at the YWAM centre in Denver just two days before the shootings.

He knew Tiffany, the woman who died there, and Dan, who got shot in the neck in the same incident.

Jonny's being en route to Oregon precluded his attendance at the memorial service held on Tuesday 11 December.

Published: 3:11 PM :: Thursday, December 13, 2007 :: 459 views :: 0 Comments :: Evangelism, NEWS