Colorado police look for links in church killings

Reuters ^ | 12/10/2007 | Keith Coffman

[jan in Colorado]

Police in Colorado on Monday were looking into possible links between shootings at a Christian evangelical church and a missionary training center over the weekend that left four victims and a gunman dead.

A man dressed in black, wearing combat boots and holding an assault rifle and at least one handgun, opened fire in the parking lot of the vast evangelical New Life church in Colorado Springs after Sunday services, killing one person on the spot and wounding others. A second person died later, police said.

A security guard shot and killed the gunman, Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers told a news conference.

Police did not identify the gunman. There were about 7,000 people in the building when the shooting erupted, a pastor said.

In an incident about 12 hours earlier and 70 miles away, a man entered a Christian missionary training center in the Denver suburb of Arvada and killed two young missionaries with a handgun shortly after midnight, police said.

The Arvada gunman, also dressed in dark clothing, fled on foot in the snow.

The attacks -- both at Christian religious buildings on a Sunday shortly before Christmas -- caused shock and dismay.

They came just four days after a 19-year-old man killed eight people and then himself with an assault rifle at a busy shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska.

Police in the two Colorado cities were sharing information but there was no indication of the motive in either case.

"We have not been able to identify a motive as of yet," Colorado Springs police spokesman Skip Arms told CNN.

While Myers said there was no information that the attacks were related, Arvada Police Chief Don Wick said there could be a connection.

[Just A Nobody]

Regardless, her shots brought him down, stopping the attack. :-)

Agree 100%!!!

Hanging in there. Out of the loop for most of the last 6 months. ;*(

[Mark17]

In the ensuing gun battle the robber was shot, but survived after surgery.

Maybe they need larger caliber weapons.

[MtnClimber]

I agree. This would seem to qualify for an automatic failure to stop drill...two to the body and one to the head. With two cops that should just about do it! This is a small restaraunt so 10-15 yards max distance. We went about a week later and there were many more people there than usual. I think people were providing community support. There seemed to be people taking turns standing watch outside. By their dress they could not be concealing weapons. I, on the otherhand, was concealing a 12+1 45ACP.