3 shot to death by Aurora, Colo., gunman

AURORA, Colo. -- A gunman who barricaded himself inside a town house after killing three people in the home was shot to death by police Saturday in Aurora, Colo., the same Denver suburb where 12 people were slain in a movie house massacre in July, police said.

The gunman and his three victims, as well as a woman who fled safely from the home at the outset of the violence and alerted authorities, were all believed to be related to one another, police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson said.

But the motive for the killings was not immediately understood. "We're trying to find out what set this guy off," she said.

A hostage-negotiation team called to the scene had sought to talk the suspect into surrendering for about five hours before police moved to shoot tear gas into the home at about 8 a.m., prompting the gunman to open fire on officers from inside, police said.

About an hour later, the gunman began firing at police again from a second-floor window, and police returned fire, killing the suspect, according to a police statement. No police officers were wounded.

Officers entering the town house found the bodies of the gunman and three other people -- two men and a woman -- who were presumed to have been shot hours earlier before police were called to the scene. The woman who escaped the home also told police the victims were shot before she fled.

The incident unfolded just a few miles south of the Aurora movie theater where 12 people were killed and 58 wounded when a lone gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."

The suspect in that rampage, former college student James Holmes, is due back in court Monday for a hearing in which prosecutors will seek to convince a judge they have sufficient evidence to put him on trial.