COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The gunman believed to have killed four people at a megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the school a few years ago and had been sending it hate mail, police said in court papers Monday.
The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household.
Five people — including Murray — were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two eruptions of violence 12 hours and 65 miles apart.
The first attack took place at Youth With a Mission, a training center for missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada; the other occurred at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where Murray was shot by a security guard, though investigators said he may have died from a self- inflicted gunshot wound.
Colorado Springs police said the “common denominator in both locations” was Youth With a Mission. The training center maintains an office at the 10,000-member church.
“It appears that the suspect had been kicked out of the program three years prior and during the past few weeks had sent different forms of hate mail to the program and-or its director,” police said.
In a statement, the training center said health problems kept Murray from finishing the program. It did not elaborate.
Earlier on Monday, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appeared Murray “hated Christians.”
Investigators have not said whether Murray singled out his victims. But the two people killed at the church — sisters Stephanie and Rachael Works, ages 18 and 16 — frequented the training center, their uncle said.
The gunman opened fire at 12:30 a.m. at the Youth With a Mission center. Witnesses said the man asked to spend the night there and opened fire with a handgun when he was turned down. The two people killed were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24.
Later, at New Life Church, a gunman wearing a trench coat and carrying a high-powered rifle opened fire in the parking lot and later walked into the church as a service was letting out.
Jeanne Assam, a church member who volunteers as a security guard, shot Murray, who was found with a rifle and two handguns, police said.
Assam said she believes God gave her the strength to confront Murray, keeping her calm and focused.
“It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God,” she said at a news conference.
Senior Pastor Brady Boyd of New Life Church 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.”
Security at the church had been increased after the shootings hours earlier in Arvada, he said. The church had a total of 15 to 20 volunteer security officers inside at the time of the attack, he said.
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