We now know that the church murderer “was shot multiple times by church security officer Jeanne Assam before he fired a single, fatal round at himself, the autopsy showed.”
We also know that the murderer drew inspiration from the Columbine killers: “My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law. If you don’t like it, you die.” This is moral subjectivism taken to its most nihilistic and murderous conclusions.
We also have the comments of Larry Bourbonnais, another person who showed great courage at the scene. The words of Bourbonnais, a Vietnam veteran, are recorded by the Rocky Mountain News:
After Columbine, I promised my daughters that if I’m ever in that kind of situation, that I would do something. Instead of standing by while people are being slaughtered, people need to take action.
There were two other armed guards, but they weren’t doing anything. I asked one of them to give me their gun so I could take the guy out. I thought, I’ve got to take this guy out. I stepped out from behind a pillar so he could see me, then I saw a female come from outside.
I was either being heroic or stupid. But I was afraid the guy would shoot me from the back. I just kept thinking I wanted to take him out.
After she shot him dead, I took a 9 millimeter gun out of his right hand. It was jammed. There was a round stuck.
He was bleeding from his back. The guy was an idiot. He was standing along a wall of plate glass. She took him out. It all happened so fast.
They made me go outside because I was a key witness. I saw a male victim. The EMT had taken his clothes off. He was cold and in a lot of pain.
Two of my daughters, Stacey and Sherry, met me at the hospital. They brought me a coat and a shirt. I told them about the promise I made to them and that I tried. They were crying.
If he had killed me, I would have gone to heaven.
I haven’t read elsewhere about two other armed guards. Yet, assuming that the account is basically accurate, it demonstrates a couple of things. First, the shadow of Columbine is very long. Second, people reacted to that horror in dramatically different ways. One deranged individual committed a copy-cat crime. Others resolved to rise to heroism, should the situation call for it. The names that deserve to be remembered in this case are those of Jeanne Assam and Larry Bourbonnais.