Here is Jeanne Assam, a Christian hero and new blond poster child for the right to bear arms. She is the female security guard who killed the New Life Church gunman. See her photos, biography, and press conference video here.
Jeanne Assam
As the gunman entered the church in body armor and wielding an assault rifle, she prayed to God and shot him dead. She said at a news conference on December 11th, 2007, “God guided me and protected me. I give credit to God. God was with me. I didn’t think for a minute to run away.â€?
“I saw him coming through the doorsâ€? and initially took cover. “I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down.”
She is licensed to carry a concealed weapon and trained how to use it. She attends church in the morning and volunteers on security detail for the later service.
Assam was stationed at the church after the earlier shooting the night before at the church’s missionary training program. The gunman, Matthew Murray, carried over 1,000 rounds of ammunition and three weapons. He had diverted people from the exit doors with smoke cannisters as he entered the only clear doorway.
Jeanne Assam saved at least 100 lives with her actions that day, entrusting to God’s divine help.
Larry Bourbonnais, Vietnam combat vet said it was the bravest thing he’s ever seen.
“She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole way. She was just yelling Surrender walking and shooting the whole time.”
As a biography, we believe that this is the same Jeanne Assam who ran track for Hamline University in Minneapolis in 1990, where she still holds a school record. She worked for the Minneapolis police department before moving to Colorado.
Video, transcript, and photos below.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Jeanne your training kicked-in should be a reminder too all police officers.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
God Bless this woman who saved all those lives and thank god for her decision to invoke her rights to carry arms. What a hero!!!
December 10th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
The *complete* video of Jeanne Assam’s statement and interview (much better than this edited CBS version) is at:
http://static.koaa.zope.net/includes/video/480×400_zope.swf?cat=zog&id=x982467980
As you watch this, keep in mind that this woman confronted, in the open, a guy who had just killed two people and who was actively firing an AK47 while carrying an addtional 1000 rounds of ammo, two pistols, and smoke grenades. The guy had triggered a grenade in the back of the church to drive the 7000 people out the front through a 75 foot long, 20 foot wide hallway where he was planning to shoot them like fish in a barrel.
This woman, carrying only a handgun, confronted that guy and defeated him. Without a doubt, she prevented hundreds of deaths. It’s an astounding interview.
Watch it.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
there was a song i heard on the dr. demento radio show years ago that spliced together will shatner as jim kirk saying, “we come in peace” and “shoot to kill”. i thought of this immediately when i read:
“She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole way. She was just yelling Surrender walking and shooting the whole time.”
my question is, how do you surrender while being shot repeatedly? i’m not asking whether or not he had any intention of surrendering, and i’m certainly not defending this man’s actions. just how it would have been possible to “surrender” under those circumstances. she may as well have been yelling “Die”.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
re rian:
my answer is why should you be given a chance to surrender at all when your only intention is the death of innocents???? His ugly life was ready to end and she stood up and dealt him the hand he wanted - I am sure she is not proud of her actions other than insofar as they served the will of God himself….amd yet I will say she sure gets my vote
December 10th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
and furthermore it may interest any and all viewers that I have never before been on this site nor do I have any real interest in right wing gun BS in fact the opposite is more like it…the simple fact is I am real tired of psycho nut-jobs going around and shooting up innocent good folks. Guns are terrible in the hands of terrible people.I don’t necessarily feel that good folks should be deprived of their right to own guns but remember this - anybody can squeeze your trigger - be prepared to be shot by your own gun particularly if you got a bunch - just statistics - and you might be next….you probably figure it’s worth it - I am not sure………
December 10th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
No offense to God or to Jeanne for being humble, but 100% of the credit for Jeanne’s efforts should go to her. She saw a lethal threat and extinguished it, plain and simple. That the lesson here. She’s a good person who’s instinct to protect took over her fear and self interest. There is no finer example of human goodness than Jeanne Assam.
December 10th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I am so glad and proud that Jeanne took this guy out. Her clear thinking and fast action saved dozens of lives (maybe more), and I think she deserves a huge amount of praise for her guts and her brains. What a great job! I, too, have firearms and would not hesitate to use them if the threat were considerable, as it certainly was in Jeanne’s case. I applaud her sharp and definitive resolution to this situation. She deserves an award from the community. She’s a real treasure.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:03 am
pardon my pagamism but jeanne is hot
December 11th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Barbara Winch says:
I agree in toto with BW, good eloquence and thank the good lord you folks know what is right….Truly renews my heretofore diminished faith in this country perhaps I and my family need to move to Colorado….too many j’Offs in CA
December 11th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Jeanne Assam is listed on a Minneapolis-based police watchdog group, “Communities United Against Police Brutality”: http://www.charityadvantage.com/CUAPB/JeanneAssam.asp
In 1997, she was briefly suspended for the use of “derogatory language” while on the job.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:12 am
I wonder how many churches have or even need armed security guards.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:25 am
James, I am totally on board with you that Jeanne is hot. And I don’t believe that thinking that is bad, evil or pagan at all. It’s just true. Even more important is the fact that she is an articulate, nice, Christian person as well as a modern day heroine, all of which adds to her attractiveness. I doubt she will be single for very long, so I’d act quickly if I were you.
December 11th, 2007 at 5:32 am
I use to work out with Jeanne at Lifetime Fitness in Brooklyn Park years ago.
She is still a tuff woman and got her head straight. I do not care about all those people talking about how she got fired years ago from Minneapolis Police; it was a B/S issue. You get fired for swearing but don’t get fired for beating up suspect? That is unfair and I know Jeanne fought it hard but as we all know ho the system works there are people controlling everything behind the curtain. She is still hot and so many guys really went gaa gaa in the gym when she was working out. If I ever in trouble I want her by my side. I too am an Arab Woman and proud of it. What you are what you believe in religion wise does not make a person.
December 11th, 2007 at 6:44 am
It is sad thing that the mental health authorities in this country let psycholtics like this guy slip through their fingers. He should have been in a mental hospital and have been on meds. Instead they are allowed to vent their rage on the public until they either kill themselves or are killed, but in the process they take many lives.
The guy in Omaha had just been released from four years in a mental hospital.
I venture to say that this young lady had more guts than I would of had and God bless her!
December 11th, 2007 at 7:48 am
God was with her?
Then why didn’t God strike down the nutjob before he killed two innocent church-goers?
No miracles here. Just a former cop who knew that there was an armed psycho on the loose.
December 11th, 2007 at 7:51 am
The church I went to when I was young had a saying, and it was that we are always in our right place at our right time. Perhaps she was supposed to lose that police job so she could save untold lives now. Without her a lot of people would have died. He had it planned with his smoke bombs and that was to drive the people into his guns.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:05 am
So I guess the innocent people that were killed in church were at the right place at the right time?
December 11th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Bob - if you don’t believe in God, fine. Is there a reason that you have a need to denegrate the beliefs of others here? Nobody is saying that God willed the people who were killed to die. I’m sure the many who were not injured due to her actions are saying amny prayers of thanks. The families of the victims are leaning on prayer to sustain them through all this.
Are you planning on living forever? Perhaps it is you that needs to go home and rethink your life, not Donald and the rest of hte posters.
I assume you agree it was good that she was there to protect her fellow parishoners?
December 11th, 2007 at 8:34 am
MBT, do you not see the irony of thanking God after a mindless tragedy of this nature?
Why didn’t God intervene and stop the innocent people from being executed while they were on their way to church?
December 11th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Scott,
The Minneapolis-based police watchdog group puts any complaint on there. They have to investigate every complaint. She did swear at a MTC Driver but in all respect they deserved it. When a police officer is speeding to go on a emergency call risking their life for someone else and a stupid bus driver does not want to move out of their way which is the law by the way and different officers have to be dispatched out to take that call, then yeah they have every right to be cursed out. She denied it which does not make it right but anyone would as well if they know they are going to get in trouble of some stupid word’s, I am sure Jeanne was in the heat of the moment when she used those words as anyone would be when you go on a call like that. Let me mention our police officers are under paid for risking their lives on a daily basis for us. Yes they choose to get in this profession because if they did not do it who would. You got a senator wanting to have sex with males in the MSP airport who is denying it did they do anything to him. You have police officers who are already on the job who beat up people did anything happen to them? So this whole system is messed up it is who they like stays in the job is what I truly believe. It was their loss because she was a great person and despite the fact she lied about it does not make her a bad person. Everyone makes mistakes in their life and a daily basis not to mention but that does not make them perfect.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Bob, because God granted Man free-will. How meaningless our lives would be if mankind was a fate-based species, and how self-centered you would be to think that God Himself attends to every daily detail of 5 billion people.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Who know who is supposed to die or live. When it will be your time it will be your time. Only God and your soul will know when it is your time. I am also very sure that those that died just went to what I call the otherside. You would probably call it Heaven. I am sure that God is not directing all our actions unless we ask him to come into our lives and even then bad things can happen to good people. I have no answers, and if I did I would be God which I am not. I am sure of one thing though her faith in her God gave her the strength to do what she did. Which one of us would have had the courage?
December 11th, 2007 at 9:50 am
“Assam was stationed at the church after the earlier shooting the night before at the church’s missionary training program. ”
i think her church’s misionary training program is a little tougher than most church’s.
was it a knight templar’s church?
December 11th, 2007 at 9:57 am
lisab - you always have a way of finding a twist in every story that the rest of us don’t see.
Bob - #22 - no I don’t. Tragedies happen, and although it is hard on those of us left behind, those that are Christians realize that death is a beginning, not the end - which is what the New Orleans bands celebrate when they play at funerals - cool to watch, by the way…
Don and McCain have a good points too.