Reports: Colorado gunman posted anti-Christian writings
Pastor Dale Morgan
Reports: Colorado gunman posted anti-Christian writings*
* Story Highlights
* NEW: Gunman copied Columbine shooter's writings in Web postings
* Matthew Murray, who killed four Sunday, worked at missionary
center in 2002
* He was left off mission trip for health reasons, center official says
* He performed Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park songs at concert,
co-worker says
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) -- Matthew Murray wrote on an Internet
forum of how he hated Christians between attacks on a mission center and
church on Sunday, according to Denver-area media reports.
A former roommate took this photo of Matthew Murray performing in a
December 14, 2002, Christmas program.
"You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray wrote at 11:03 a.m.
on Sunday, CNN affiliate KUSA reported on its Web site.
"I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and
I WILL shoot to kill," the KUSA report quoted from the final posting.
With the exception of symbols used to replace an expletive, this was the
same wording used by Eric Harris in a posting before he and Dylan
Klebold went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in 1999.
The posting, under the user name "nghtmrchld26," was made several hours
after Murray killed two people at the Youth With a Mission Center in
Arvada, Colorado, and a few hours before Murray killed two people at the
New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He later died in a shootout with a
church security guard. Video Watch accounts of shooting victim, former
bunkmate »
Five years ago, the Youth With A Mission center left Murray off a
missionary trip for which he had trained.
Peter Warren, director of the missionary center, said Monday that
managers left Murray off the 2002 trip to Bosnia for health reasons.
Joe Istre, president of Association of Former Pentecostals and
administrator of the Web forum Murray used, said several of the forum's
members tried to help Murray in recent months.
"He appeared to be an isolated person," Istre said. "We tried to tell
him to get help, to get some counseling, but he just laughed at it."
A psychologist offered to help Murray after reading a poem he posted
called "Crying all alone in pain in the nightmare of Christianity," KUSA
reported.
"I've already been working with counselors," Murray replied, according
to KUSA. "I have a point to make with all this talk about psychologists
and counselors 'helping people with their pain.'"
Istre said the Sunday posting was the first one that included violent
threats.
"He scared a lot of people in the forum throughout the last few months
with some of pretty crazy posts but never anything violent."
Istre said he was allowed to continue his postings "because he needed to
vent."
Murray also copied from the writings of Columbine gunman Harris in
another case:
"God, I can't wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense
of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out. 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."
While making the postings, Murray also sent hate mail to the mission
center, the Rocky Mountain News reported.
I-Report contributor Richard Werner, 34, said Monday he was a worker at
the center in Arvada, Colorado, in 2002, the same time as Murray.
Werner said five days before Murray was told in 2002 he could not make
the Bosnia trip, Murray performed a pair of dark rock songs at a concert
at the mission that made fellow workers "pretty scared."
The performance -- which included a song by rock band Linkin Park and
another that had been recorded by controversial rocker Marilyn Manson --
followed months of strange behavior, Werner said.
Werner, of Balneario Camborius, Brazil, said he had a bunk near Murray's
and that Murray would roll around in bed and make noises.
"He would say, 'Don't worry, I'm just talking to the voices,' " Werner
said. "He'd say, 'Don't worry, Richard. You're a nice guy. The voices
like you.' "
Werner said he instantly suspected Murray when he heard the news of
Sunday's shootings.
"I turned to my wife and I said, 'I know who did it. It's Matthew,' " he
said. "It was so obvious.
"For four months, he was sleeping right next to me. Those are the things
you don't imagine, but when it happened it was so obvious."
Werner said his "heart is crushed" by news of the shootings.
Phil Abeyta, who identified himself as Murray's uncle, read a statement
from the family Monday asking for forgiveness.
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"Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims
and families of this tragedy," he said. " ... We cannot understand why
this has happened."
Abeyta spoke at a news conference with spokesmen from the Youth With A
Mission center.