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Colo. Shooter Had Ties to Church

Posted Dec 10, 07 2:44 PM CST in Crime & Courts,  US    Most Covered

(Newser) – A former mission worker was the shooter in both of yesterday’s Colorado church shootings, CNN reports. The killer, identified as Matthew Murray, worked with Youth With a Mission in Arvada, where the first shooting occurred. The Rocky Mountain News describes Murray as the 24-year-old son of a local neurosurgeon, and CBS 4 reports that his neighbors said Murray was a recluse.

A senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where the second shooting took place, had said earlier that the shooter was not a church member. “It was just absolutely random,” he said. “He simply showed up with a gun, intent on harming people.” Four people, two at each location, died before a security guard at the second church shot and killed Murray.

Sources: CNN, Rocky Mountain News, CBS

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Unidentified individuals enter the house at 10929 E. Berry Pl. in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colo. on Monday morning, December 10, 2007 after a search warrant was served. Authorities said the search...   (Associated Press)
Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department cars are seen at a home at 10929 E. Berry Pl. in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colo., early Monday Dec. 9, 2007. Authorities were searching a home that they said...   (Associated Press)
Police officers run through a parking lot at New Life Church following a shooting at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. A gunman killed two staff members at a missionary training...   (Associated Press)
Arvada, Colorado police chief Don Wick answers questions from the media about a shooting of four missionary trainees Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007 in Arvada, Colo. Two of the missionary trainies died from their...   (Associated Press)
An unidentified officer stands by his cruiser while blocking the roadway into the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. Two women died from a shooting at the church, which...   (Associated Press)
Brady Boyd, senior pastor of the New Life Church, talks about the victims of a shooting at the church during a news conference outside the facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Monday, Dec. 10, 2007....   (Associated Press)
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crime  • shooting  • Colorado  • gunman  • church shootings  • megachurches  • Ted Haggard  • New Life Church  • Matthew Murray


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