Church Gunman's Family Tours New Life, Meet Guard

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The families of a gunman and the two teenage sisters killed last month at New Life Church met and exchanged hugs, pastor Brady Boyd said Monday.

Boyd said Matthew Murray's family, along with David and Marie Works, the parents of slain sisters Stephanie and Rachel, also met with Jeanne Assam, the volunteer security guard who wounded Murray before he killed himself.

They prayed with her and commended her for her courage and swift, decisive action, according to a family spokesman.

"As Christians, we can talk philosophically about forgiveness and redemption, but I saw it modeled in a way I've never seen it this week," Boyd told The Gazette of Colorado Springs Monday.

Boyd retraced Murray's steps for his parents and younger brother, starting with from when Murray parked his car to when he leaned against a wall in the hallway, wounded, before killing himself.

Murray, 24, on Dec. 9 killed two people at Youth with a Mission, a missionary training center in Arvada, before driving to 65 miles south to Colorado Springs' New Life, killing 18-year-old Stephanie Works and her 16-year-old sister Rachel. He wounded several others at the two locations before Assam, a former Minnesota police officer, confronted Murray and shot him.

Boyd said during the meeting Thursday Ron Murray repeatedly apologized to the Workses and to Assam for what his son put them through.

"Words cannot adequately express our deep, deep gratitude to David and Marie Works, Pastor Brady Boyd, Jeanne Assam, and the entire New Life Church family. God is good and our entire experience last Thursday was filled with His loving and healing presence," the Murray family said in a news release on Tuesday.

"The depth of our sorrow and our grief is greater than we can possibly describe. But with thanks to God, these remarkable families and their pastors and churches, healing and reconciliation have begun. We are committed to finding a way to move forward in the service of The Lord and our community. Our family is united around one main goal: to dedicate ourselves to using our lives and the power of Christian forgiveness to honor these four precious young people -- Rachel and Stephanie Works, Tiffany Johnson and Philip Crouse." (Read the full family statement.)

They wept at the site where Rachel and Stephanie Works were shot and at the site where their son died.

Boyd told the New Life congregation about the meeting at the start of his sermon on Sunday.

"Share this story. I want it to be broadcast all over the world," he told them.