I was shocked by the news. Our church of the past year, New Life Church, was the location of yet another shooting by some crazed lunatic with a gun. Here’s how TIME put it.
Even before two of its teenage congregants were shot near their car on Sunday, New Life Church in Colorado Springs had been dealing with a legacy of trauma. At the end of 2006, the megachurch had suffered through a sex scandal after its founder Ted Haggard admitted to a relationship with a male escort. Church membership plummeted from 14,000 to 10,000. Now, with a new pastor on board only since August, the church is once again in the national spotlight, this time as part of a shocking two-episode multiple murder. At a press conference today, the church’s new leader, Brady Boyd, called for prayer for the family of the victims, Stephanie and Rachael Works, sisters who were 18 and 16. But Boyd also asked for prayers for the family of their killer: “He has a mom and dad somewhere… and … we know that there is a grieving process for them as well.”
Today, police announced that there were positive forensics matches between the crime scene at the church and the evidence left behind 12 hours earlier when Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24, were shot and killed at a missionary training center for the group Youth With a Mission (YWAM), 65 miles away in Arvada. The shooter had reportedly been trying to ask for a place to stay, but when Johnson tried to refer him elsewhere, he shot her. Police are now focusing on 24-year old Matthew Murray — the gunman in the New Life Church shooting, who was shot and killed by an armed New Life security volunteer — as the likely gunman in the earlier shooting as well. Murray, whose last known address was with his parents in Colorado’s Arapahoe County, had apparently brought several smoke bombs with him to New Life. The police bomb squad was reportedly called into his parents’ home during a search. Indeed, the police had searched the home of Murray’s parents before the New Life incident occurred.
The rest of the story can be found here. (Or just watch or read any news)
I don’t know what to say or do. On one side, I am shocked that this could happen so close to home. Thank God my family was out of town, but there is still a family destroyed by this madman. On the other side, I want to strike back. I want to Do something. I know it’s impossible, and this is just one of those times I can only hang my head and stay out of it…. or is it?