The Heroine Of The Colorado Springs Church Shooting

Did anyone else get chills reading about the heroic actions of this woman, Jeanne Assam?

A woman, fresh from a three day fast, in which she prayed to God for guidence in choosing a career path, was thrown right into the path of this mad-dog killer:

Amid deafening cracks of gunfire, smoke-spewing canisters and the flight of thousands of New Life Church members, Jeanne Assam said she suddenly saw the hallways clear and a gunman come through the door.

“I took cover. I identified myself. I engaged him. I took him down,” the 42-year-old former law officer and volunteer church security guard said Monday at a news conference in the Colorado Springs police station.

“I just said, ‘Holy Spirit, be with me.’ I wasn’t even shaking,” Assam said. “I give the credit to God. I say this very humbly. God was with me.”

*Chills!*

“It was scary,” Assam said at the news conference. “I tell you it was scary. It was loud. I’ll never forget. The gunshots were so loud.”

Assam said she had drawn her weapon countless times in her prior law enforcement career, but she had never shot anyone until Sunday.

“I was very focused. I knew what I had to do,” she said. “It was it just seemed like me, the gunman and God.”

*Chills!*

“I was weak,” she said. “God made me strong. What was going through my mind is how awesome God is.”

*Chills!*

She said she loves law enforcement, but she still doesn’t have her answer about her future.

“I’m going to continue to pray about it,” Assam said.

The Paster called her “a real hero”.

 

“When the shots were fired, she rushed toward the scene and encountered the attacker there in a hallway. He never got more than 50 feet inside our building,” he said. “There could have been a great loss of life yesterday, and she probably saved over 100 lives.”

Boyd said the gunman had a lot of ammunition and estimated that 40 rounds had been fired inside the church, leaving what looked like a “war scene.”

Dave In Texas over at AOSHQ made note of the disparity in firepower between Assam and the gunman:

News reports said he had an “assault rifle”, and two handguns. Given the inability of the media to understand firearms, we might not know for months what he was carrying. But I’ll note this FWIW, say he had a cheap commie SKS.

Goddamn. She took him on with a handgun. And took him out.

A Vietnam vet’s point of view:

Larry Bourbonnais, a combat-tested Vietnam veteran, said it was the bravest thing he’s ever seen.

Bourbonnais, who was among those shot by a gunman Sunday at New Life Church, watched as a security guard, a woman later identified as Jeanne Assam, calmly returned fire and killed the shooter.

“She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole way,” said Bourbonnais, who was shot in the arm. “She was just yelling ‘Surrender,’ walking and shooting the whole time.”

Bourbonnais, 59, was chowing down in the church cafeteria when he heard the shots. He headed in the direction of the gunfire, asking “where’s the shooter?”, as people ran past him.

Near an entryway in the church, Bourbonnais came upon the gunman and an armed male church security guard who was there with his gun drawn but not firing, he said.

Bourbonnais said he pleaded with the armed guard to give him his weapon.

But the guard just hollered at Bourbonnais to get behind him.

He wouldn’t hand me his weapon, but he wouldn’t do anything.”

Armed guard #2 was no better:

There was an additional armed security guard there, another man, who also didn’t fire, Bourbonnais said.

A couple of damn wimps!

Bourbonnais yelled at the gunman to draw his attention, he said.

“First, I called him ‘Coward’ then I called him ‘S—head’ ” Bourbonnais said. “I probably shouldn’t have been saying that in church.”

No, indeed, it only attracted the shooter’s attention:

That’s when the shooter pointed one of his guns at Bourbonnais and fired, he said.

Bourbonnais ducked behind a hollow, decorative pillar and was hit in the arm by a bullet and fragments of the pillar.

Enter our heroine:

Assam turned a corner with a drawn handgun, walked toward the gunman and yelled “Surrender!” Bourbonnais said.

The gunman pointed a handgun at Assam and fired three shots, Bourbonnais said. She returned fire and just kept walking toward the gunman pressing off round after round.

After the gunman went down, Bourbonnais asked Assam, a volunteer security guard with the church, how she remained so calm and focused.

Bourbonnais said she replied:

“I was asking the Holy Spirit to guide me the entire time.”

Damn! More *chills*!