DENVER -- Police said Monday that the gunman who killed two people at a megachurch in Colorado Springs and two people at a missionary training school in Arvada was the same troubled 24-year-old man.

Police said Matthew Murray was "responsible for the crime" and that the handgun found at the church in Colorado Springs was forensically linked to the handgun used in the shooting in Arvada.

"Testing has confirmed that the handgun found at the church in Colorado Springs is forensically linked to shell casings found at the crime scene in Arvada," said Arvada Police Chief Don Wick.

During his assault on New Life Church, Murray carried an assault rifle, two handguns and a backpack with more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition in clips, Colorado Springs police said. Authorities believe Murray acted alone and bought the firearms himself.

Wick said that police were on Murray's trail early -- and acting on a tip, detectives happened to be at his home in unincorporated Arapahoe County Sunday afternoon when violence erupted in Colorado Springs, 65 miles away.

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"Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims and families of this tragedy," said Murray's uncle, Phil Abeyta, reading from a family statement.

"On behalf of our family, and our son, we ask for forgiveness. We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief. We are cooperating fully with the police agencies involved in the investigation of the events that led to this tragedy."

Murray, 24, was home-schooled by his family and raised in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray's father is a neurologist and a prominent multiple-sclerosis researcher.

Five people -- including Murray -- were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two eruptions of violence 12 hours apart.

The first attack took place at Youth With A Mission, a training center for missionaries in 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. (Read the security guard's story.)

Murray Was Kicked Out Of Youth With A Mission Program

Murray had been thrown out of the Youth With A Mission school a few years ago and had been sending it hate mail, police said in court papers Monday.

There is a Youth With A Mission office on the New Life Church campus, and many members of New Life have completed the YWAM's school and discipleship programs. The groups have also worked together in local evangelical outreach programs.

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

Colorado Springs police said the "common denominator in both locations" was Youth With A Mission.

"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. (Read more on that story)

Police gave no immediate details on the hate mail. And the training center said that Murray left in 2002 -- five years ago, not three -- and that no one there can recall any visits or other communication from him since then.

Earlier 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. One of the teens had also just returned from a mission overseas that was sanctioned by the church.

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

Searching Matthew Murray's Home For Clues

Authorities could be seen coming and going from Murray's home Monday morning, and at one point searching the bushes in the front and in the back yard. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Arapahoe County bomb squad were also involved in the search at the home on East Berry Place and Havana Street.

Authorities looked for guns, ammunition and computers and left the home carrying several boxes of evidence. Based on evidence at his home and interviews with his parents, investigators concluded he was the man behind both crimes.

Neighbors said the family has lived at that home for 10-plus years.

"It's just crazy just hearing about it. I was thinking about how I knew them so long ago," said neighbor Cody Askeland. "They were a really religious family."

Murray's father, Dr. Ronald S. Murray, is a well-known neurologist with a practice in Lone Tree. His office was closed Monday and a message on his phone line said, "Dr. Murray's office is closed, and he will not be available until further notice."

Ronald S. Murray is also chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center in Englewood.

A Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman said that Murray was home-schooled and she doesn't have any record of him attending a high school in the area or receiving a diploma.

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

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.

Witnesses Describe Shootings

The violence began about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, when a man pulled a handgun and opened fire at the Youth With A Mission center after he had been denied a request to spend the night there. Witnesses told police that the gunman was a white man in his early 20s, wearing a dark jacket and skull cap and carrying a handgun.

More than 12 hours later, at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, a gunman wearing a trench coat and carrying a high-powered rifle opened fire in the parking lot and then walked into the church as a service was letting out, Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers said.

Police said he tossed a smoke grenade at the north entrance of the church, just as Sunday services was ending, and then drove the short way to the east entrance to the church.

In the east entrance parking lot, he fired several rounds in the parking lot, hitting four people and multiple vehicles, police said.

Jessie Gingrich had left New Life and was in the parking lot getting into her car when she saw the gunman get a rifle from his trunk and open fire on a van full of people.

"A man got out of his car and pulled out a huge rifle and my first thought was, 'That can't be a real gun,' and he started shooting," said Gingrich. "I was absolutely positive that I was going to be next."

She said she then cowered in her car, fumbling with the ignition key.

"I was just expecting for the next gunshot to be coming through my car. Miraculously -- by the grace of God -- it did not," she told ABC's "Good Morning America." "I believe the only reason I got away was because he had to stop and reload his gun."

She said she doesn't believe the gunman recognized his targets.

"I don't know if it was someone he recognized but an entire family had just gotten in their van and he had a very clear view that they had done that. I just think he was going for as many people as he could," she said.

Ashley Gibbs was getting into a car with David Harris when they heard the gunshots -- a sound like someone kicking ice from the side of a car, she said. 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," Gibbs said. "I just prayed God would bring him peace."

Murray then walked into the building, went about 80 feet down the main hallway, firing at another man taking cover, and that's when he encountered the security guard, police said.

Security officers in the church were investigating the smoke on the other side of the building, when several parishioners warned them of gunshots on the east side of the building.

Police later found smoke devices in the primary entrances of the building.

Colorado Springs Victims Identified

The victims killed in the Colorado Springs shooting were identified Monday as sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16. Their father, David Works, 51, suffered two gunshot wounds -- one to the abdomen and one to the groin -- and was listed in fair condition on Monday. They were shot in the parking lot as they were getting into their van.

"Our concern is for our family that lost two teenage daughters. Our hearts are grieving this morning for them," said New Life's Senior Pastor Brady Boyd. "You can imagine, as parents, losing two children while coming to church, just showing up for a worship service, not bothering anyone."

The teenage girls were home-schooled. The Works family had been with New Life Church for a 1 1/2 years.

"I'm asking Colorado Springs and the country to please pray for that family this morning because they're going through a very difficult time," said Boyd.

Judy Purcell, 40, was shot in the right shoulder and was treated and released. Larry Bourbannais, 59, was shot in the forearm and treated and released.

Boyd 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."

Arvada Victims Identified

The two dead victims at the missionary center were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24.

Johnson, who grew up in Chisholm, Minn., loved working with children and wanted to see the world, said family friend Carla Macynski.

"Tiffany was a well-liked, easygoing 26-year-old. She was friendly, adventurous and a definite leader. She wanted to see the world," Macynski said as she choked back tears. Johnson had traveled to Egypt, Libya and South Africa with the missionary group.

Crouse, of Alaska, had helped build a foster home at a Crow reservation in Montana, said Ronny Morris, who works with a Denver chapter of the mission.

Staffer Dan Griebenow, 24, of South Dakota, was shot in the neck, according to Youth With A Mission. Staffer Charlie Blanch, 22, suffered gunshot wounds to his legs, according to ministry officials. His hometown wasn't immediately known.

Griebenow has been upgraded from critical to serious condition.

The live-in Christian missionary center is on the grounds of the Faith Bible Chapel. Cheril Morrison, wife of chapel pastor George Morrison, said Crouse had just hung up Christmas lights at her home and that Johnson was "an amazingly beautiful person."

Darv Smith, director of a Youth With A Mission center in Boulder, said people ranging from their late teens to their 70s undergo a 12-week course that prepares them to be missionaries. He said the center trains about 300 people a year.

Paul Filidis, a Colorado Springs-based spokesman with Youth With A Mission, said staffers are usually former missionaries themselves and that the "mercy ministries" performed by trainees include orphanage work.

Youth With A Mission was started in 1960 and now has 1,100 locations with 16,000 full-time staff, Smith said. The Arvada center was founded in 1984.

"Violent crimes of any sort are tragic enough, but when innocent people are killed in a religious facility or a place of worship, we must voice a collective sense of outrage and demonstrate a renewed commitment to keeping our communities safe," said Gov. Bill Ritter.

The Colorado shootings came only days after a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a popular mall in Omaha, Neb., killing eight people and himself.

"The violence over the weekend against young missionaries in Arvada and against worshippers at New Life Church in Colorado Springs would be heart-rending in any season, but it is especially bitter during this time of preparation for Christmas, the birthday of the Prince of Peace," said the Rev. Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver. "Along with the whole Catholic community in Colorado, I pray that God will heal the suffering inflicted by these terrible events, and sustain the hope and faith of the people at New Life Church, Youth With A Mission and Faith Bible Chapel. For those struggling personally with this sorrow, may God penetrate and redeem even this tragedy with the peace of Christmas and Christ's promise of eternal life."