Breaking news!
Gunman wounds 4 in missionary center
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 12/09/2007 05:55:27 AM MSTDENVER – A gunman walked into a training center for young Christian missionaries in a Denver suburb early Sunday and opened fire, wounding at least four people.
The shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Youth With a Mission center, Arvada Police spokeswoman Susan Medina said.
The extent of the injuries was not clear, and the gunman was still at large Sunday morning.
According to its Web site, Youth With a Mission has about 1,000 locations worldwide and trains people to become missionaries. About 50 people were inside the Arvada site when the gunman opened fire.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_7677115
Update:
Witnesses told police that the gunman was a white male, about 20 years old, wearing a dark jacket and a skull cap. He may have glasses or a beard.
According to its Web site, Youth With a Mission has about 1,000 locations worldwide and trains people to become missionaries. About 50 people were inside the Arvada site when the gunman opened fire.
Update 2:
Police with dogs searched through the night and nearby houses were alerted via reverse 911.
Medina said residents should look out their windows to see if the shooter had left tracks in the snow overnight.
About four inches of snow had fallen in the area in the past day.
Update 3:
The dormitory is on the campus of the Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, about 13 miles west of Denver.
People bundled up against subfreezing cold trickled into the sanctuary for Sunday services as detectives conducted their investigation at the dormitory, about 300 yards from the church.
Darv Smith, director of a Youth With a Mission center in Boulder, said people ranging from their late teens to their 70s undergo a 12-week discipleship course that prepares them to be missionaries.
He said the center trains about 300 people a year.
Youth With a Mission was started in 1960 and now has 1,100 locations with 16,000 full-time staff, Smith said. The Arvada center at the Faith Bible Chapel campus was founded in 1984.
Update 4:
AP Photo: A police car blocks the roadway leading to a youth ministry dormitory on the campus…
17 minutes ago
ARVADA, Colo. – A gunman walked into a training center dormitory for young Christian missionaries early Sunday and opened fire, killing two people and wounding two others. No arrests had been made by late morning.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071209/ap_on_re_us/missionary_shooting
A gunman entered the dormitory in Arvada, Colorado, early Sunday.
Peter Warren, the center’s co-founder, said a man and a woman were killed. He said the woman was from Minnesota and the man was from Alaska. He did not provide their ages.
“These kids were like our kids, you know?” he told CNN affiliate KUSA. “It’s just such a tragedy.”
He said a memorial service for the two would likely be held Tuesday or Wednesday.
One person remained in critical condition, according to Peter Iliyn, the regional director for Youth With a Mission. He did not give information regarding the fourth person wounded in the attack.
The names of the victims were being withheld pending notification of family members, police said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/09/colorado.shooting/index.html
Another shooting 12 hours later at a Church which has a connection to the Mission Center in the first shooting incident. Sixty five miles away. Four shot.
Update 5:
29 minutes ago
ARVADA, Colo. – A gunman killed two staff members at a missionary training center early Sunday after being told he couldn’t spend the night, and about 12 hours later four people were shot at a busy megachurch in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs police Lt. Fletcher Howard said a suspect had been detained in the shootings at the New Life Church, but a source who was locked down at the church Sunday afternoon said a security guard had shot and killed the gunman. Authorities in Arvada, a Denver suburb about 65 miles north, said no one had been captured in the shootings there.
It was not immediately known whether the shootings were related, but Arvada authorities said they were sharing information with Colorado Springs investigators.
The mission training program has a small office at the church’s World Prayer Center on the New Life campus.
A gunman in a black trench coat and a high-powered rifle entered the church’s main foyer about 1 p.m. and began shooting, according to the source at the church, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the police department had asked that it release all information.
The church’s 11 a.m. service had recently ended, and hundreds of people were milling about when the gunman opened fire. Nearby were parents picking up their children from the nursery.
The gunman was killed by a member of the church’s armed security staff, the source said. Four people were shot, and the source did not know whether the shooter was one of the four. A SWAT team was searching the building for an explosive device, but the source could not confirm any details.
The conditions of the four people shot at New Life were not immediately known, El Paso County Sheriff’s Lt. Lari Sevene said.
The first shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. at the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada, a Denver suburb, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said.
A man and a woman were killed and two men were wounded, Medina said. All four were staff members with the center, said Paul Filidis, a Colorado Springs-based spokesman with Youth With a Mission.
Arvada Police Chief Don Wick said the suspect spent several minutes speaking with people inside the dorm. Peter Warren, director of Youth With a Mission Denver, said the man asked whether he could spend the night.
When told he couldn’t stay, the man opened fire, then left on foot, Warren said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071209/ap_on_re_us/church_shootings
Update 6:
Colo. gunman may have warned of attacks
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Authorities believe the man who killed four people at a church and missionary training center posted an anti-Christian diatribe online that closely repeated a rant by one of the Columbine killers, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Matthew Murray, who was kicked out of a missionary training center where the first shooting occurred, is believed to have posted the message on a Web site for people who have left evangelical religious groups. His most recent post was Sunday morning in the hours between his attacks in Arvada and Colorado Springs, according to KUSA-TV in Denver, which first reported on the writings.
“You Christians brought this on yourselves,” Murray wrote, according to the station, which did not identify the site. “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.”
What does that remind me of? Oh yes one of the comments left on this very post..
Kip- While I am opposed to violence altogether, and murder obviously especially, these people are nothing more than casualties of war. A war, by the way, that they started.
God bless the deceased and their families. Prayers going out to all involved especially the surviving two. May they recover.
While I am opposed to violence altogether, and murder obviously especially, these people are nothing more than casualties of war. A war, by the way, that they started.
Excuse me???? What is your malfunction? Prone to knee jerking are you?
Causalities of a war they started? What war?
How callous! What a cold heart and a black soul you must have.
Kip I am so on your side on this one with one caveat. As long as no Jehovah Witnesses (JW’s) were around because as a church JW’s are not politically active unlike many other churches with theocratic desires. Theocrats are the ones deserving the wrath of hundreds of thousand gunmen. Not those trying to be Christ like and call mans heart to goodness so his behavior will change opposed to theocrats that want to legislate mans behavior to “goodness”. The theocratic way is actually satanic in nature.
By the way I am not a JW I just have respect for them.
Jehovah Witnesses are a religious cult. There have been stories reported that once a family member leaves Jehovah Witnesses the ones remaining have to break all ties.
This article explains a lot.
CULT!
I have experienced their fervor first hand. They would come knocking on my door. The first time I would politely tell them I was not interested. The second time I attempted to get my point across in a more stern way. Did that stop them? No. The third and last time I ignored their knocking. What did they do? Did they quietly leave my property? No. They continued to knock louder and harder. Banging & pounding was more like it. How bloody arrogant! As if I owed it to them to open my door to my home. In order to have peace of mind I opened the door and demanded that they to leave my property immediately. Did they? No. They then had me face to face and and tried to preach their word. Threats of calling the police FINALLY got through to them they had better leave. ASAP
And how ignorant that their members (even children) die on the grounds of refusing blood transfusions. That is unfathomable.
This is incredibly sad and I’m praying for the families of the victims and those who were wounded.
Hi Velvet,
I’m off to work, but I must say you have some freaking insane commenters over here. So the two POSs that think these people had this coming … you think an unarmed teenage girl in CO Springs deserved this? Rot in hell you ignorant bastards.
Hi wytammic
I second that emotion!
I accidentally deleted velvethammer’s comment from above.
Here it is again. lol
He was my brother and I am just now bringing myself to look at all this crap on the internet.