 Tiffany Johnson, 26, of Minnesota, was one of two Youth With A Mission staff members shot and killed by an attacker in Arvada, Colo. |
A still unidentified security guard is being credited with saving hundreds of lives at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., where 24-year-old Matthew J. Murray launched an armed assault yesterday.
Pastor Brad Boyd, who has led the 10,000-plus member church for only months, said the guard “is a real hero.”
“When the shots were fired she rushed toward the scene and encountered the gunman in the hallway,” he said today. “He never got more than 50 feet into the church.”
Boyd held a news conference today to talk about the two teen-age girls who were shot and killed in the church’s parking lot as the gunman launched his attack.
The deadly assault came just hours after another deadly attack by a similar lone gunman on a Youth With A Mission missionary training center about 70 miles away in Arvada, Colo. Two mission staff members there were shot and killed, police said.
Authorities believe the two attacks probably are related, and the name of the assailant was released in a report by KDVR-TV in Denver today.
In Colorado Springs, the attack by Murray started in the parking lot, where Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachel Works, 16, were shot and killed, police said. David Works, 51, was reported hospitalized with gunshot wounds in his abdomen and groin, while Judy Purcell, 40, was wounded in her shoulder, and Larry Bourbannais, 59, was wounded in his arm. Purcell and Bourbannais both were treated and released.
Police did not immediately confirm the relationship between the victims named Works.
Brady said the volunteer security guard deserves credit for preventing what could have been a much larger tragedy.
“She probably saved over 100 lives. He had enough ammunition on him to do a lot of damage,” the pastor said. There were an estimated 7,000 people on the north Colorado Springs campus of the church at the time.
Boyd said the guard had been stationed in the “rotunda” of the complex because of the shootings about 12 hours earlier at the Arvada YWAM complex.
 Philip Crouse, 24, from Alaska, was killed by an armed attacker while responding to a request for help by a lone individual at the Arvada, Colo., base of Youth With A Mission |
YWAM director Peter Warren reported a Christmas banquet had been held Saturday evening, and the doors to the complex had been locked about midnight. Thirty minutes later a man appeared seeking a place to stay.
Among those responding were Tiffany Johnson, 26, of Minnesota, who directed hospitality services for the ministry organization in Arvada, and Philip Crouse, 24, of Alaska, another staff member.
Authorities report the man apparently was told he could not stay in the staff residence, and he then opened fire, killing Johnson and Crouse, and injuring Charlie Blanch, 22, and Dan Griebenow, 24.
All four were staff members at the facility that trains hundreds of people each year for mission trips that range from delivering the Gospel message in foreign nations to repairing homes in communities damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Arvada Deputy Police Chief Gary Creagor told the Associated Press there was a “good possibility” the attacks were linked, and investigators were searching for links.
As part of that work, authorities early today searched the home in Englewood, roughly halfway between the Arvada missionary training school and the church in Colorado Springs, where Murray lived with his parents and 21-year-old brother.
No details were released about what authorities found in their hours of searching.
The suspect in the Arvada shooting was described as a 20-year-old white male wearing a dark jacket and a cap. He used a handgun. Authorities in Colorado Springs said the attacker there used a rifle.
Colorado Springs police spokesman Lt. Skip Arms reported that a search warrant had been obtained for the home, and officers went through it.
In Colorado Springs, Boyd said the security had been enhanced just before the worship services, based on security officers’ concerns about the shooting in Arvada.
The security officer who did the shooting, he said, had prior law enforcement experience and was a volunteer. The pastor said the guard normally would have been making sure of his own safety but instead had been assigned the entrance location.
“I just was expecting for the next gunshot to be coming through my car,” Jessie Gingrich told ABC.
She had just left the church and also was in the parking lot when the shooting began. She reported seeing the gunman get a rifle from his trunk and open fire on a van filled with people.
Boyd said the church community was praying for the victims and their families, as well as the family of the shooter.
“He has a mom and dad. We’re praying for them,” he said.
He described it as a random attack, and Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of “The Purpose-Driven Life,” told Fox News it was a symptom of the times.
In Colorado Springs, church attendees were evacuated to “holding” areas the church had set up earlier in a contingency plan for any sort of disaster.
In Arvada, the gunman had fled on foot, and police lost his trail, despite new-fallen snow, when his tracks mixed with others. The several dozen people in the residence hall were taken to another YWAM facility in the foothills near Golden, officials said.
New Life Church was launched by former Pastor Ted Haggard, who shepherded its grown into mega-church status. Haggard left the church in 2006 in a scandal that erupted when a man claimed to have had a long-term relationship with him.
Youth With A Mission was launched by Loren and Darlene Cunningham in 1960 and originally focused on giving youth an opportunity to do short-term mission work. It now works with volunteers of any age in programs that focus on evangelism, training and mercy ministries. It operates in more than 1,000 locations in the U.S. and 148 other nations with a staff of nearly 16,000.
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