Report: Door closed on missionary center gunman during shooting

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BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 27, 2008

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ARVADA - The man who killed two people at a Colorado youth missionary training center was able to fire 15 rounds from a 9mm handgun before an exterior door closed and locked him outside, according to police records released Thursday.

Details of the Dec. 9 shootings by Matthew Murray were contained in nearly 400 pages of investigative documents, photographs and 911 tapes released by police in the Denver suburb of Arvada.

An investigator's report detailed the slayings of Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24, at the Youth With a Mission Training Center. Forty-five people were inside the center when Murray, 24, approached shortly after midnight.

About 12 hours later, Murray killed two people at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, 65 miles south of Arvada. He was wounded by a volunteer security guard before committing suicide.

The missionary training center has had an office at New Life.

According to Arvada police, Murray stopped by the Arvada center, where he was a missionary trainee in 2002, and asked if he could wait there for a ride.

He stayed inside the center for about a half hour before Johnson asked him to leave. When he got to the door he opened fire, hitting Johnson 12 times. Crouse, about 20 feet away, was hit three times. Then the automatic door closed, locking Murray outside.

"We're not sure how the door closed," center spokesman Dale Lambert said Thursday. "To us, it was praise God the door closed, more people didn't die."

Police spokeswoman Susan Medina said Johnson's actions probably saved others from dying.

"Based on what was learned during the investigation by our detectives, it's believed that the actions of Tiffany Johnson in escorting Matthew Murray down the corridor to an exit door at YWAM, coupled with Matthew being locked outside of the facility immediately after the shootings began, ultimately saved lives," she said.

Four students returning from an outing heard the shooting as they pulled up to the center. They saw Murray banging on the door, trying to get back in. He left when he saw the students.

Police spokeswoman Susan Medina said investigators refused to speculate whether there could have been more victims.

"We don't know how much ammunition he had with him and it's tough to know what his intentions were," she said.

Previously disclosed interviews and Murray's Internet postings depict him as a disturbed young man who was bitter about being an outcast, turned against charismatic Christianity and dabbled in other beliefs.

On a computer in Murray's bedroom, police found numerous downloads about school shootings, including information about the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in suburban Denver; a September 2006 standoff at Platte Canyon High in Fairplay, west of Denver, by an armed man who shot and killed a female student and then himself; and last April's shootings at Virginia Tech.

Police found a videotape of the inside of the missionary center, including the hallway where the shooting took place, according to the Arvada report. The video was taken while Murray attended the center in 2002, and was set to music from shock rocker Marilyn Manson.

Investigators determined that Murray was kicked out of the center after talking about hearing voices, issues involving medication he took for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, and playing a Marilyn Manson song at a Christmas banquet.

Police also found more than a half million images of adult and child pornography on his home computer, according to the report prepared by lead investigator Robert Vander Veen.

Vander Veen documented Murray's growing disaffection with Christianity, starting with the revelation that the Rev. Ted Haggard, founder of New Life Church, had an intimate relationship with a male prostitute. Haggard was fired from the church in December 2006.

Investigators found a sign protesting Haggard in Murray's car, parked outside New Life.

During one of seven cell phone calls Murray made around the time of both shootings, he told a cousin that he had taken a Xanax pill and had one beer.

Murray went home between the shootings and spoke to his mother, who told investigators that her son seemed to be in good spirits. He even wished a 17-year-old visitor a happy birthday before heading for Colorado Springs.

Two months before the shootings, Murray tried becoming a member of Ad Astro Oasis, a group that touts itself as "free-thinking magicians" who subscribe to the tenet, "Do what thou wilt."

He was asked to distance himself from the group after he and an acquaintance claimed to have committed a sexual assault. Murray said the claim was made for shock value.

A search of Murray's computer revealed the decision bothered him.

"Matthew recognized the conflict and couldn't understand why he would not be accepted as a member," Vander Veen wrote. He noted that Murray left a message for one of the group's members as he drove to Colorado Springs.

Investigators found Murray had legally purchased and registered five weapons, including the 9 mm handgun used in the slayings at the missionary training center and a Bushmaster XM-15, a civilian version of the military's M-16, that was used in the New Life slayings. He also had an AK-47 assault rifle, a Beretta .40-caliber handgun, and a Beretta .22-caliber handgun.

Murray also had more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition on him or in his car at New Life, and an additional 1,000 rounds in his bedroom.