DENVER—The volunteer security guard who shot and wounded church gunman Matthew Murray is writing a book about the role forgiveness has played in her life.
Jeanne Assam said Thursday the book will include the events of December 2007, when she shot Murray after he had killed two people at a Colorado Springs church and two others at a Denver-area missionary training center.
Assam said she will also write about the forgiveness she has been shown—forgiveness that she says led her to come to know God.
“I think God is so good. It’s amazing and it needs to be written about,” Assam said.
Just after midnight on Dec. 9, Murray went to the Youth With a Mission center in suburban Arvada, where he shot and killed Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24.
Hours later, Murray drove to New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where he opened fire as worshippers left a Sunday service. Sisters Rachel Works, 16, and Stephanie Works, 18, were killed.
Murray then walked inside the church where Assam, who attends New Life and volunteers with its armed security detail, wounded him. Murray then fatally shot himself.
Assam said Thursday she is at peace with what happened.
“I have peace about it because we stopped somebody who was intending to do a lot of harm,” she said.
Murray’s parents have said their 24-year-old son had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was bitter about being an outcast.
Interviews and Murray’s own Internet postings depict him as a disturbed young man who dabbled in the occult, briefly joined the Mormon church and turned against charismatic Christianity.
Assam was invited to the state Capitol on Thursday to be present when the House and Senate passed a resolution praising her bravery and crediting her for protecting the lives of hundreds of people at the church.
Assam said she was “flattered and humbled.”
Also present was David Works, the father of the two girls Murray killed and who was himself wounded.
Assam has said God helped her stop Murray. She was weak after a three-day religious fast and prayed for God to be with her after she heard shots outside the church. She said her hand never shook, and she wasn’t hit when Murray fired at her.
Aside from events of that day, Assam has revealed little about herself.
After the shooting, authorities in Minneapolis said she had been fired from her police job there in the 1990s for lying.
New Life Pastor, Brady Boyd was quick to defend her, saying everyone has made mistakes they regret and saying Assam had recently become a devoted Christian and had changed her life.
