Minutes after reports of shots fired at the Youth With a Mission dormitory early Sunday, John Murphy of the organization ran to the scene from a nearby residence. On his way through the Arvada neighborhood, Murphy saw an unfamiliar man slip on sidewalk ice. He stopped to ask if the man was OK. “Sorry, guys,” the man said in a shaky voice — which struck Murphy as odd. Why would someone apologize after falling? Murphy wondered.
Later, after Murphy saw photos of killer Matthew Murray, he realized the man on the ice was likely the one who had just gunned down Philip Crouse and Tiffany Johnson, and wounded two others at the dorm.
About 13 hours later, Murray walked onto the New Life Church campus in Colorado Springs with three guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition and fatally shot sisters Rachel and Stephanie Works and wounded three other people, including the sisters’ father.
Murray, 24, killed himself at the church after being shot three times by a security guard.
On Thursday, members of Youth With a Mission who saw Sunday morning’s shooting or who were indirectly involved met with counselors and in group sessions.
Counselors were flown in from other states to talk to the young people about what they saw and how they are dealing with it, said Dave Mansfield, a counselor from Las Vegas.
“We want people to hear they aren’t the only ones experiencing this,” Mansfield said before leading a critical-incident stress debriefing for 16 people who were directly involved in the shooting.
“It’s been hard,” said Stephanie Hollman, 19. “I can’t sleep at night.”
Many at the missionary training center were going to go through graduation ceremonies next week, but the organization has moved them to today. Many will be going off to missionary outreach in Thailand, Mexico and Argentina, according to Paul Filidis, spokesman for Youth With a Mission.
Police reports say Murray had been sending threatening e-mails to the organization, but there are two in the Denver area, and officials with Youth With a Mission Denver say they never received the threatening messages.
Ronny Morris, the founder of King’s Kids who operates Youth With a Mission Arvada, said he did receive the e-mails, but there were no specific threats.
“It was all pretty black stuff,” Morris said. “Generally, ‘I hate Christians’ and ‘I hate YWAM.’ ”
About eight years ago, Murray became associated with Morris’ group. Morris tried to get him involved in Youth With a Mission, and Murray went through missionary training but was not allowed to go onto a mission.
“He was always the odd duck,” Morris said.
“He was a hard guy to get to know. He was a very introverted young man. We tried to help him as much as we could for him to get the kind of care he probably needed, we couldn’t do that.”
On Thursday, the Denver group tried its best to make sure its members got the help they needed.
“We’re trying to stay on top of this community with what is necessary to do,” said John Connor, associate director. “For me personally, I’m starting to come down from the craziness of it all. I can tell you, I am doing better.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
