More About Jeanne Assam
CBS4Denver
Colorado Springs police on Wednesday said Murray had an assault rifle, a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a 9mm semiautomatic handgun when he entered the church. Investigators found an AK-47 assault rifle in his car and a .22-caliber handgun at his home.
Murray purchased the weapons between Nov. 17 and Sept. 11, four in the Denver area and one in Colorado Springs, police spokesman Skip Arms said.
Arms said 26 rounds had been fired from the Bushmaster assault rifle Murray had with him and one round from the Springfield 9mm.
Arms said Jeanne Assam, the volunteer security guard at New Life who shot and wounded Murray, had a Beretta 9mm semiautomatic handgun and fired a total of 10 rounds.
Rocky Talk Live with Mark Wolf
Jeanne Assam, the volunteer security guard who faced down a killer who had her out-gunned and shot him to stop the rampage, is a hero whose past has bubbled up to public attention.
The 42-year-old wounded Matthew Murray, who shot himself to death as he lay on the floor of New Life Church after fatally shooting two teenage sisters and wounding three others.
Assam was fired by the Minneapolis Police Dept. in 1997 over an incident in which she lied to investigators over an incident in which she cursed a bus driver.The incident has been recounted in many of the stories written and broadcast locally and nationally as the 42-year-old was swept up in a media vortex.
The appropriate reaction: who cares about her past?
Denver Post
Slowly, word of Assam’s experience spread through Sioux Falls and Brandon, the bedroom community about 8 miles away where she grew up.
“I have friends who are Army Rangers calling me, saying what she did is not easy to do, even for trained people,” said Swenson. “I just know that she’s a hero. We just feel sorry for her too because dealing with this can’t be easy. What a terrible thing.”
Assam was one of seven children — six girls and one boy — born to Fred and Kay Assam, whose family gained stature in the community through its real estate ventures.
Family members described Fred Assam as a “visionary,” a second-generation immigrant of Lebanese descent who took his kids on two-week canoe and camping expeditions but also instilled a strong work ethic.
Assam’s family was not remarkably religious growing up, said Sam Assam. Their mother adopted “very strong” Christian beliefs later in her life, and “tried to steer us all in that direction.”
Jeanne Assam eventually responded to that push. She has taken strongly to her friends in the Colorado Springs Christian community as well as the mountain scenery and doesn’t appear to want to come back to the Midwest, despite family appeals, Sam Assam said.
Assam grew more intensely religious within the last year, said Bevere, who hired her at Messenger International in Colorado Springs.
“She heard me speak earlier this year,” said Bevere, who runs a worldwide ministry with his wife, Linda. “She said she was very, very touched. She said, ‘God, I’d love to work for that ministry,’ and she applied.”
Assam works in the ministry’s call center, which sells an array of CDs, books and videos. Bevere said what has constantly stood out to him is how gentle she is.
“The word I would use to describe her is ‘meek,’ ” said Bevere, who added that the Christian connotation of that word is “power under control. She’s humble and very under control.”
Rocky Mountain News
New Life Church Senior Pastor Brady Boyd said Tuesday that church officials were aware of Assam’s firing when she was added to the volunteer security detail.
He said that church officials were influenced by the fact that Assam still had a license to carry a gun and was licensed to work at other police departments.
“If you go back in any of our pasts, you can dig up something on any of us,” Boyd said. “She admittedly made lots of bad decisions but only in the past few months did she become a devoted follower of Christ. Her life has changed. She was let go, but that happens every day to good people.”
Boyd said that Assam should not be “convicted or crucified for being a heroine.”
“That’s why a lot of people don’t get involved - for the scrutiny after the fact,” he said. “She did the right thing at the right time.”
Denver Post
Larry Bourbonnais, a combat-tested Vietnam veteran, said it was the bravest thing he’s ever seen.
Bourbonnais, who was among those shot by a gunman Sunday at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, watched as a security guard, later identified as Jeanne Assam, calmly returned fire and killed the shooter.
“She just started walking toward the gunman, firing the whole way,” said Bourbonnais, who was shot in the arm. “She was just yelling ‘Surrender!’ walking and shooting the whole time.”
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