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When a black-clad gunman walked into New Life Church and started shooting, he was met with the church's first line of defence: A congregant with a concealed weapons permit and a law enforcement background.
Jean Assam, an armed volunteer security guard, shot and killed the gunman. New Life's pastor credited her with saving 100 lives.
"I heard shots fired. There was chaos. The shots were so loud, I thought he was inside. I saw him coming through the doors," Assam said.
Assam said she then took cover, identified herself to the gunman and "I took him down". She credited God for her survival because of "the firepower he had compared to what I had".
Assam had never fired on a suspect while working as a police officer.
Churches want to present an open and welcoming image, but in an era of mass-casualty shootings and terrorism threats, the violence at New Life highlights a new emphasis on security.
Some of the US's estimated 1200 megachurches - places where more than 2000 worshippers gather each week - have been quietly beefing up security in recent years, even using armed guards to protect the faithful.
At Potter's House, a Dallas megachurch led by superstar pastor TD Jakes, a private security company employs a team of armed, unarmed, uniformed and plainclothes guards that keeps watch over crowds in the thousands. Under a new Texas law, all nonprofits must use licensed security guards, and the church hired Classic Security in response, said Sean Smith, who formerly headed the church's security detail and now works for the company.
For the past three years, Potter's House has hosted a church security conference, drawing more than 400 people this year to sessions on surveillance, background checks and other issues. Although precautions can be costly, money spent on security can end up being far less than liability and lawsuit risks if no action is taken, the church says.
Even without a security department, churches can train volunteers to keep watch for suspicious behaviour, like a visitor dressed in a long coat in summer or not making eye contact with anyone, Smith said.
The security plan at New Life Church may seem extraordinary. The church's volunteer security force is stocked with people with military or law enforcement experience, they carry radios and weapons, and there are evacuation plan calls for hustling worshippers into "secure zones" in the case of emergencies.
New Life, which has about 10,000 members, is no ordinary church. Even before the founding pastor, the now-disgraced Ted Haggard, became a player on the national political stage, the church endured death threats against him. There were bomb scares and vandalism, including animal blood being splashed on the walls, said Patton Dodd of Colorado Springs, a former New Life Church staff member.
"Even back then we had people undercover in the congregation who were armed," Dodd said. "It was a big church at the time, it was Christian, and some people really hate that stuff."
Police said a 24-year-old Denver-area man Matthew Murray was responsible for the shootings at both New Life Church and The Youth with a Mission centre that killed four people.
- AP, Reuters
