Did I suspect that she had a dark past in her police career that ended after 14 years, during which time she said that she reached the “lowest of the lows,” and embraced her faith?

Yep.

Was it any of my business?

Nope.

10 years ago, her department let her go, for reasons that were between it and her. Okay.

3.5 days ago, she did what others there could or would not do, and after she verbally tried to get an active shooter who was a serial mass-murderer to put down his weapons, she defended herself and hundreds of others, by advancing on him, and skillfully putting rounds from her weapon into the threat.

This is now textbook response to active shooters, and a procedure which we didn't have back in the days of Columbine. It requires guts, alacrity, and skill.

Don't like that she killed him in a church? Well, I hate that he made her shoot him. I hate that he had already killed and wounded others. I hate that he took his own life in that church (for indeed, she stopped him, but he killed himself).

She's saying absolutely nothing self-agrandizing. She's deferring all pride.  Yes, she acknowledges what happened.

No, she's not actively chatting about how and why she terminated employment as a cop.

You know what? That's *her* past. If she were trying to put herself into the limelight, she'd be a public figure that you'd have the right to get picky about her past with. But she was thrust into the forefront, against her will.

And while she prevailed in that encounter, please don't forget that *SHE* was the victim. Matthew Murray attacked her church, and pointed his weapon at *her*, before she defended herself and her fellow worshipers.

Digging that far back into her past (her veracity about what happened is not at question; there were plenty of witnesses and there is plenty of physical evidence that points to the truth being exactly as she spoke it) is like looking into the sexual history of a rape victim.

Please leave the woman alone. I think she'd appreciate it. I know that I would.

Gesz, the 'hero'-worship in this country is out of control.

I found it very humorous that someone locked the site from free (anon) replies. I guess those folks are not near as thick skinned as they portend to be.

Big bad coffee boy had to be the heavy and shutdown all those naysayers because it (we) were not advancing their adjenda.

It is ok to disagree on that site as long as it is against us terrible ole' rethugs and not against all that is progressive and pure. Blecch…….

Where is the tie in between what she did as a law enforcement officer in Minnesota have to do with what Ms. Assam's conduct here in Colorado Springs as a private citizen employed by New Life Church to provide a level of security for the pastor?

These are relevant questions to you as well. Care to reply?

Fact is, her job history has nothing to do with the incident on Sunday.

Where are the in-depth investigative reports regarding the job histories of the armed security guards who *failed* to fire at Matthew Murray? There were plenty of people on the church campus with guns. Why didn't they do anything? Was their cowardice in any way related to having been fired from previous jobs? The public demands answers!

Obviously, there's more to the petty media fixation on Assam. Assam is a woman, a movie-star attractive woman, a brave woman, a woman who knows how to use deadly force in the appropriate circumstances. When faced with Assam, the deeply internalized misogyny in our culture and our media kicks into high gear. Take her down, sisters.

Pathetic.

“Just like Jesus…

…turned away at the door…..given no love…..given no shelter from the cold.

Yet many will cheer a bullet in his head.”