Remembering the YWAM/New Life Church shooting: Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2007

YWAM - Tiffany Johnson, 26 & Philip Crouse, 24
New Life - Stephanie Works, 18 & Rachel Works, 16

A home school shooting...

Editors Note: This one is stretching the definition of a school shooting or mass shooting I do admit. I have several reasons for including it in the research, first being that the shooter at one time attended the youth mission center he targeted first but he was expelled for saying that he heard voices and playing scary music such as Marilyn Manson. So, in a way Youth With a Mission was his school. This was also a church shooting, but a church that had played a big role in his education too. 

This one doesn't usually qualify as a mass shooting, because it didn't become one. Given the fact he had 1000 rounds of ammunition in his possession at the time he very well intended it to be. In this case, an armed security officer was there to stop him when he walked in the door and the killing stopped. So, though it is a stretch, it does qualify as a school shooting for research purposes.

On a more personal note, I had loved ones there that day. My family had just exited back door of the church as it happened. Another family member is one of the people who helped put out the smoke bombs at the back of the church used as a distraction, when the shooting started at the front. This one came way too close to home.  

Last updated: April 3, 2018

Date: December 9

Year: 2007

School: YWAM/New Life Church

Location: Colorado Springs

State: Colorado

Wounded: 5

Fatalities: 4

Shots Fired: Unknown
Carried over 1000 rounds of ammunition

Time lapsed: Unknown

Police response time: 1 minute 4 seconds after 911 call.

How ended: A member of the church's safety team and former police officer shot him, and stopped the shooting but the wound that killed him was self-inflicted. 

Civilians involved: Suicide, but only after wounds inflicted by a third party. 

Perpetrator: Matthew John Murray

Age: 24

Family history: Son of a prominent neurosurgeon, home schooled by his mother in a "deeply religious" home. His father and mother are described as loving Christian parents who are active in their own church. About his parents he said, “Me, I remember the beatings and the fighting and yelling and insane rules and all the Bill Gothard (expletive) and then trancing out . (expletive) . I’m still tranced out.”
He was enrolled at one time in the Youth With a Mission program, (YWAM) a 12 week Christian youth ministry. His removal from the YWAM program seemed especially devastating, and appears to have escalated his descent over the next 5 years.
Connections to New Life Church are small. His mothers "favorite pastor" was Ted Haggard, she often donated money to his church and she and Matthew attended one of his conferences 3 years before the attack. At this event according to Murray..

"I got into a debate with two prayer team staff members... These two staff members watched me throughout the conference to find out who I was with. They found my mother and told her this story that went something along the lines of I 'wasn't walking with the lord and could be planning violence.'"

He said this event lead to a member of the church and his parents searching his room for contraband games, music and dvd's. He had hidden them at a friends house, but they found the, anyway. He claimed to have lost $900 worth of his own property in the search. After this he rebelled even more delved into more violent music and hobbies. Studying the teaching of Alastair Crowley.
Pastor Ted Haggard was disgraced a year before the attack for a relationship with a male prostitute. It is reported that Murray felt vindicated by Haggard's fall.

Later baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Laterday saints. Became a member of the Prince of Peace church of the brethren, before attempting to join the Ad Ostro Oasis. He was asked to distance himself from this group.

Note: The homeschooling was a program from strict religious group, the Illinois-based Institute in Basic Life Principles. The IBLP has been criticized for cult like behavior, a strict focus on obeying authority, and even blaming sexual abuse victims for their abuse. In 2014, founder Bill Gothard stepped down from the ministry after multiple allegations of sexual abuse surfaced against him.

https://religionnews.com/2014/02/28/conservative-leader-bill-gothard-placed-administrative-leave-following-abuse-allegations/
This was such an interesting rabbit hole that I kept going deeper and deeper on this subject alone. More links are provided below. 

Red flags: He was said to heavily research school shootings, weapons, prior to the shooting. Frequently rage against Christianity in the months before the shooting. His anger and intensity online increased beginning in August and continued to spiral out of control for the next 4 months. After the shooting massive mounts of pornography were found on his computer, including child pornography and homosexual images. Mid summer he admits to cutting himself. Writings getting darker, quoted Marilyn Manson on Halloween, played a Manson song at the YWAM center Christmas event, which was he final act that got him expelled. He reached out to several people before and between shootings saying he had no reason to live.
He left explicit threats online, notably in between the two shootings. Before the second shooting, he called an acquaintance and hinted to her that he was planning a shooting. She called police. 

Mental illness history: Diagnosed ADHD as a child, medicated from age 5 to 2003. Known to act out verbally as a child, but never physically.
Claimed he was bipolar, never diagnosed. History of depression. Claimed to hear voices. Was seeing a therapist.

Drug or medication use: Prozac

Inspiration: Named Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris, and former Children of God member Ricky Rodriguez, who killed the woman that he said molested him and then killed himself. According to some internet postings he taunted his mother when admitting he was bisexual. Quoted Eric Harris nearly word for word in his final threats.

"I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the ...teeth and I WILL shoot to kill... 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."

While Eric Harris wrote...

"I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the fucking teeth and I WILL shoot to kill... God, I can't wait til 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 a few people. Like Brooks Brown."

After the shooting he was found with copies of the books, "“Practical Homicide: How to Survive a Tactical Shooting,” "Master the Police Officer Exam," "The Tactical Rifle," "CQB Clearing Tactics For First Responders" 

Possible motive: After being kicked out of the YWAM program, he began blaming Christianity for his problems. He claimed to have been physically and  psychologically abused by Christians and hinted at sexual abuse. He said this drove his hatred of Christianity.
The night he targeted the YWAM center the Christmas banquet, this was the last event Murray was allowed to attend with the group before being asked to leave. Prior to the shooting he was looking at photos of graduating classes in the hallway, his class was there but his photo was not because he didn't complete the program.
In November of 2006, the Pastor of New Life Church, Ted Haggard was forced to step down after allegations of meth use and visits to a homosexual prostitute. Murray ranted that this only proved their hypocrisy. It was just over a year later that Murray targeted the New Life Church
He was also found with maps to the Gnostic mass being held that night by Ad Astra Oasis, and gps on his car shows he may have been nearby for some time that night. He also had a map to a former coworkers home whom he'd had trouble with. A letter to Jesus was also found in his car, asking questions like, "What have I done so wrong? What is wrong with me anyways? Am I really such a bad person?" and "Why didn't you ever answer my cries?"

Weapons:
XM15 .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle
Beretta .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol
Springfield Armory 9mm semi-automatic pistol

Weapons obtained: Purchased legally after passing required background checks, collected them over the previous year. 

Training: Unknown

Aftermath: A website has been created dedicated to telling the truth of those who were raised under Bill Gothards teachings. There are many stories here of abuse at the hands of parents trained by Gothard.
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/

Matthew Murray, Ted Haggard and Double Lives
http://www.westword.com/news/matthew-murray-ted-haggard-and-double-lives-5855570

Matthew Murray’s Nightmare of Christianity
http://www.westword.com/news/matthew-murrays-nightmare-of-christianity-5824515

Resulting actions: The sister of the two girls who died at New Life Church that day now runs a website reaching out to other survivors of mass shootings. She lost 2 sisters at New Life and her father was shot. She had a friend who survived the Aurora Theater massacre. She lost a student in a mass shooting.
https://laurieworks.com/

'Sincerely, a mass shooting survivor'
https://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/mass-shooting-survivor-laurie-works-talks-about-the-oregon-shootings/Content?oid=3392179

The Shooting: This shooting happened in two locations. Just after 12:30 am, someone knocked on the door of the YWAM center in Arvada, Colorado. The person identified themselves as a former student and asked if they could stay for the night. As staff tried to figure out what to do, Murray opened fire. He shot and killed 2 people at the YWAM center Tiffany Johnson, 26 and Philip Crouse, 24 and injured 2 more before running off. The center was evacuated, and police began searching the neighborhood.

In between shootings he called several friends and talked about suicide, and admitted he had been researching school shootings. One friend became concerned and notified authorities.

The next day, at approx 1 PM New Life Church was just letting out when smoke bombs went off in the parking lot. Bystanders put them out using snow. Then the first shots rand out in the front parking lot. The Works family was just getting into their van when he hit Stephanie Works, 18 and
Rachel Works, 16. The Works sisters were killed and their father wounded, and another church goer was wounded. He then entered the church with multiple weapons and over 1000 rounds of ammunition, but he was met by Jeanne Assam, who first identified herself as a police officer and asked him to surrender. They traded gunfire for a few minutes, and the shooter was wounded. He then killed himself with a single gunshot to the head.

Conspiracy Theories:

While the basic facts in this meme are true, there is much left out of this story.

Jeanne Assam is played off as being an armed citizen, who just happened to be on the scene. She was actually a former police officer and current member of the security team at the church. They had beefed up security because of the shooting at YWAM the night before, and Assam was part of the team that made this decision.

Her actions no doubt saved countless lives, but Assam herself had expressed concern over her portrayal in the media as a case for arming more people in public places.

"I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe in putting trained people in place because just like with the Walmart situation, there were some people that were armed in there but they didn't know what to do,” 

Why the woman who stopped a 2007 church shooting rejects 'good guy with a gun' title
http://www.9news.com/article/news/local/why-the-woman-who-stopped-a-2007-church-shooting-rejects-good-guy-with-a-gun-title/489767682

Despite Shots From Security Guard, 24-Year-Old Murray Killed Himself
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3982722&page=1

She is talking about the Walmart shooting in October 2017, where a gunman opened fire, and several citizens drew their weapons to defend themselves. The shooter got away and it took 5 hours to identify him because police had difficulty identifying the shooter versus the armed citizens.
https://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/02/shoppers-pulled-weapons-walmart-shooting/

Sources:

Arvada Police Department Supplimental Report
http://murderpedia.org/male.M/images/murray_matthew/20080327_024606_ArvadaSummary.pdf

Matthew Murray and The Dark Side of Support Forums
https://www.poynter.org/news/matthew-murray-and-dark-side-support-forums

Matthew Murray: Toxicity, Online Community, and Religion with a Twist
http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2007/12/12/matthew-murray-toxicity-online-community-and-religion-with-a-twist/


The Bill Gothard story while not directly linked to the shooting, was the home school that Murray's parents used. It has been reported that the Duggar family adhered strongly to this program. A number of children who were raised in this program have come out alleging abuse since Murray's accusations and subsequent death including the Duggar family.

It has since been revealed that his preference for young girls was well known.

Gothard's teachings were so widespread that they were adopted in Russian schools, after he handled a number of Russian adoptions. Mike Huckabee was a big fan and the two of them worked on bringing his teaching to the government by stripping the overtly biblical references. According to some, Gothard's teachings have been integrated into hundreds of communities through various public school, law enforcement, prison, and even government programs.
https://spiritualsoundingboard.com/2015/05/28/victim-of-bill-gothards-teachings-speaks-out-about-josh-duggard-scandal-mike-huckabee-bill-gothards-dangerous-agenda-and-influence-in-political-arena-and-society-at-large/

Again, here is the article explaining some of the abuse allegations against Gothard.

Conservative leader Bill Gothard on leave following abuse allegations
https://religionnews.com/2014/02/28/conservative-leader-bill-gothard-placed-administrative-leave-following-abuse-allegations/

More on the Gothard scandal and the Murray link...

on growing up in bill gothard's homeschool cult
An article by Micah Murray, (no relation know to shooter) another child raised under Gothard's teaching reacting to the news of the accusations against Gothard.
http://micahjmurray.com/bill-gothard-homeschool-cult/

More information on the Duggar family and their links to Gothard's teachings.

Inside The Duggars’ Deep Ties With A Once-Powerful, Now-Scorned Ministry
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/theslice/duggars-bill-gothard-iblp

The Creepy Fundamentalist Homeschool Cult That Trained the Duggars
http://gawker.com/the-creepy-fundamentalist-homeschool-cult-that-trained-1706969994

(Mike) Huckabee Linked to Controversial Bible Teacher Bill Gothard
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/huckabee-linked-to-controversial-bible-teacher-bill-gothard-cms-12076