SWIFT action by an armed security guard prevented a massacre at a Colorado "mega-church" after a gunman carrying a high-powered rifle was shot dead.
Police in Colorado yesterday were looking into possible links between shootings at the evangelical Christian church and a missionary training centre over the weekend that left four dead.
A man dressed in black, wearing combat boots and holding an
assault rifle and at least one handgun, opened fire in the car park of the vast New Life church in Colorado Springs after Sunday services, killing one woman on the spot and wounding others. Her sister died later.
A female security guard shot and killed the gunman.
Colorado Springs police said sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael works, 16, were killed. Their father, David Works, 51, was in hospital.
The security guard, a volunteer, saved many lives, New Life senior pastor Brady Boyd told a news conference yesterday. "She's a real hero," he said.
Mr Boyd said the security guard rushed the attacker, who did not get more than 6ft inside the building, and "took him down in the hallway".
"She probably saved 100 lives," Mr Boyd said of the guard. The gunman, he added, "had a lot of ammunition to do a lot of damage".
Police did not identify the gunman, whom Mr Boyd said was not a member of the church. There were about 7,000 people in the building when the shooting erupted.
Ashley Gibbs was getting into a car at the church with David Harris when they heard the gunshots. Mr Harris said he saw the gunman, and it looked like he knew how to handle a weapon.
"I was in the military for about three years, and the way he was holding the rifle looked just like the way we were taught to when I was in the military," he told NBC's Today show.
They stayed in the vehicle and prayed for the gunman.
"It was obvious that he was in some sort of pain and going through a lot," Ms Gibbs said. "I just prayed God would bring him peace."
In an incident about 12 hours earlier and 70 miles away, a man entered a Christian missionary training centre in the Denver suburb of Arvada and killed two young missionaries with a handgun shortly after midnight, police said.
A young man came to the door of the Youth With a Mission dormitory asking for a place to stay, the group said in a statement.
When he was told he could not be accommodated, he opened fire, killing two youth staffers and wounding two who had been cleaning up after a Christmas party.
The two dead victims at the missionary centre were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24.
The Arvada gunman, also dressed in dark clothing, fled on foot in the snow.
The two attacks 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," said Mr Arms.
A spokesman for the Arvada missionary group said it had an office on the Colorado Springs campus of the New Life church.
EVANGELISTS
COLORADO Springs is a focal point of evangelical activity in the United States. New Life is a leading "megachurch" with more than 10,000 members.
At the Youth With a Mission centre in Arvada, people ranging from their late teens to their seventies undergo a 12-week course that prepares them to be missionaries.
The full article contains 632 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
