The killer who opened fire at two Christian centers, killing four people and wounding five others, apparently had never been in trouble with the law before.
Matthew Murray, who turned 24 five days before he unleashed terror on religious centers in Arvada and Colorado Springs, spent three to five hours a day on his home computer, taking classes and, in recent weeks, sending hate mail to the missionary training center where the shootings began.
Murray - who was positively linked to both shootings through ballistics - died after a shootout with a security guard at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. That deadly confrontation came after attacks on the Youth With A Mission center in Arvada early Sunday morning and on New Life Church a little more than 12 hours later.
Investigators on Monday weren't sure whether the security guard, Jeanne Assam, killed Murray or he took his own life.
Many other questions about him remained unanswered.
Murray lived with his parents in a split-level home in the 10900 block of East Berry Place in unincorporated Arapahoe County.
Murray's computer use and hate mail to the Youth With A Mission program and one of its directors is mentioned in the warrant issued for the search of his home.
One neighbor, 19-year-old Cody Askeland, told The Associated Press that Matthew Murray and his brother, Christopher, were home-schooled and their family was "very, very religious."
Ronald Rex, director of admissions at Colorado Christian University, said Matthew Murray enrolled in a class there about a year ago then dropped it almost immediately.
Christopher Murray was a student at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., before he transferred to CCU in Lakewood for one semester. However, Rex said, he transferred back to Oral Roberts.
The gunman's father is Dr. Ronald S. Murray, a neurologist involved in research on multiple sclerosis.
He has been affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center and has conducted research aimed at better understanding of the autoimmune disease.
Dr. Murray has been in the news before, largely for his research on multiple sclerosis.
But he also was mentioned in stories in 1997 after one of his patients killed himself with the aid of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist and assisted-suicide advocate dubbed "Dr. Death."
Dr. Murray's Lone Tree medical office was closed Monday morning. Someone left a simple message on his phone answering machine:
"Dr. Murray's office is closed, and he will not be available until further notice."
Matthew Murray apparently had never been arrested for a serious crime, according to records at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
His only previous brush with the law appears to have been in January when he was ticketed by a state trooper on Interstate 25 in Douglas County for driving without his headlights on.
News staff writers Ivan Moreno and Alan Gathright contributed to this report.
Statement made Monday by Pastor Phil Abeyta, the uncle of gunman Matthew Murray
"Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims and families of this tragedy. On behalf of our family and our son, we ask for forgiveness. We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief. We are cooperating fully with the police agencies involved in the investigation of the events that led to this tragedy. Respectfully, the Murray family."
Original article source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/11/murray-had-no-police-record/
