Colorado gunman killed himself after rampage: police

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado man who shot dead four people at a Christian missionary training center and a church over the weekend died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the rampage, authorities said on Tuesday.

Police have said 24-year-old Matthew Murray was responsible for the weekend shootings 70 miles apart, apparently over a grudge he bore against the missionary training center in Arvada, Colorado.

Authorities had previously said that Murray was killed by a security guard who opened fire on him at the New Life church in Colorado Springs, where he had already shot two teenage sisters dead in the parking lot.

"The death of Matthew Murray has been ruled a suicide," the El Paso County Coroner's Office said in a statement. "It should be noted that he was struck multiple times by the security officer which put him down. He then fired a single round killing himself."

The coroner's office said the sisters, Stephanie and Rachael Works, were both killed by a single gunshot to the torso. Their father, David Works, 51, was hospitalized in fair but stable condition.

Police have said that Murray had ties to the Christian missionary training center in Arvada.

Police and church officials have credited security guard Jean Assam, a volunteer, with saving lives at the church, calling her a hero.

"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 told reporters at a press conference on Monday.

Assam said she then took cover and identified herself to the gunman. "I took him down," she said. She credited God for her survival because of "the firepower he (Murray) had compared to what I had."

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

(Reporting by Steven Saint; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by David Storey)