Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she “did not think for a minute to run away” when a gunman entered the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and started shooting.
There was applause as Assam spoke to reporters and TV cameras saying, “God guided me and protected me.”
New Life’s Senior Pastor Brady Boyd called Assam “a real hero” because Murray “had enough ammunition on him to cause a lot of damage.”
When asked by a reporter if she felt like a hero, Assam said, “I wasn’t just going to wait for him to do further damage.”
“I give credit to God,” she said.
Assam described how the gunman, Matthew Murray, entered the east entrance of the church firing his rifle.
“There was chaos,” Assam said, as parishioners ran away, “I will never forget the gunshots. They were so loud.”
“I saw him coming through the doors” and took cover, Assam said. “I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down.”
“God was with me,” Assam said. “I didn’t think for a minute to run away.”
What a great woman.
The media needs to stop calling her a “security guard” or even a “guard” as if she were a professional or hired. It is misleading. She was a *church member* trained in the use of firearms who volunteered to patrol the church grounds that day. She was not a peace officer or a security guard. Just a citizen exercising her right to keep and bear arms.
Wow. Good point, Ouroboros.
Ms Assam did what she was trained to do, what she volunteered to do and at great risk to her life, advanced on the perp and put him down. She is a hero.
Would that there had been such citizens, on hand at the mall in Omaha. There would possibly have been a lesser carnage of innocent civilians had that been the case.
Nebraska is a *carry* state, so there are many citizens in the state who can and do carry firearms. The mall however, was a self-designated gun-free zone, so the law abiding carriers, all left their pieces at home, or in their cars.
The security guards in the mall were too, unarmed.
This sort of insanity, is an open invitation to deranged murderers, that they have a target rich environment being offered to them.
The important point: that she suggested to church leadership after the Arvada shooting by the same man that they beef up security – then she literally fasted and prayed, seeking God’s voice, which is what gave her the strength when the need arose. Maybe our PB should take spiritual lessons from her.