COLORADO SPRINGS -- 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 been sending it hate mail, police said in court papers Monday.

The Associated Press (AP) identified the gunman as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled in what a friend said was a devout Christian household. Murray's father is a neurologist and a leading multiple sclerosis researcher.

Five people — including Murray — were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two incidences of violence 12 hours and 65 miles apart.

The first attack took place at Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a training center for missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada. The other one 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.

“Through both investigations it has been determined that most likely the suspect in both shootings are one in the same,” the AP reported police said in court papers.

The AP reported that Colorado Springs police said the “common denominator in both locations” was YWAM. The group’s press office told ANS by e-mail that “YWAM rented some office space from New Life Church until recently. Some of our staff attend the church.”

The AP reported police said, “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.”

Murray's relatives said they were grief-stricken and baffled.

“Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims and families of this tragedy. On our behalf of our family, and our son, we ask for forgiveness. We cannot understand why this has happened,” the AP reported they said in a statement read by the gunman's uncle, Phil Abeyta, who fought back tears.

Matthew Murray and YWAM

In its statement, YWAM said that Murray was a student for a short while at the YWAM Arvada training center in 2002 . He was enrolled in a Discipleship Training School (DTS), but did not complete the program.

The DTS is a 12 week classroom course followed by a 12 week field assignment, usually to another culture. The goal of the program is to form Christian character and assist students in discovering their unique, God-given talents.

The YWAM statement pointed out that not everyone completing a DTS necessarily joins YWAM. Many take part in a DTS so they can more closely focus on their faith and consider whether God might be calling them to Christian ministry. For those opt for a YWAM career, successful completion of the DTS qualifies them to apply for a staff position or further training.

According to the statement from YWAM, Murray did not complete the lecture phase of his Discipleship Training School, nor did he participate in the field assignment. The program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to do so. Murray left the Arvada training center, and no one at the facility remembered him visiting or having any other communication with the center since that time.

YWAM expressed its condolences to the families of the other victims. The statement said that its condolences are also extended to the Murray family in a spirit of forgiveness.

The AP reported that police gave no immediate details on the hate mail.

Did Murray Hate Christians?

Earlier Monday, a law enforcement official who spoke to the AP 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 Mark Schaepe of Lincoln, Neb., told The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

The AP reported that authorities searched the Murray house on a quiet street in Englewood on Monday for guns, ammunition and computers. No one was home when a reporter visited the split-level brick home early Monday. Murray's father, Ronald S. Murray, is chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center in Englewood.

Matthew Murray lived there along with a brother, Christopher, 21, a student at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla.

A neighbor, Cody Askeland, 19, told the AP that the brothers were home-schooled, describing the whole family as “very, very religious.”

Christopher studied for a semester at Colorado Christian University before transferring to Oral Roberts, said Ronald Rex, dean of admissions and marketing at Colorado Christian. He said Matthew Murray had been in contact with school officials this summer about attending the school, but decided he wasn't interested because he thought the school was too expensive.

Police said Murray's only previous brush with the law was a traffic ticket earlier this year.

Senior Pastor Brady Boyd of New Life Church said the gunman had no connection to the church. “We don't know this shooter,” the AP reported Boyd said. “He showed up on our property yesterday with a gun with the intention of hurting people, and he did.”

The gunman opened fire at 12:30 a.m. at the YWAM center. Witnesses said the man asked to spend the night there, and opened fire with a handgun when he was turned down. They described him as a young man, perhaps 20, in a dark jacket and cap.

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.