[Spartacus]

[SIZE=12px]AURORA, Colo. (Reuters) - A gunman who barricaded himself inside a townhouse after killing three people in the home was shot to death by police on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado, the same Denver suburb where 12 people were slain in a movie house massacre last July, police said.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]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.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]But the motive for the killings was not immediately understood.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]"We're trying to find out what set this guy off," she told Reuters.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]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 8:00 a.m. (10:00 a.m. EST/1500 GMT), prompting the gunman to open fire on officers from inside, police said.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px]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 following the incident. No police were wounded.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]Officers entering the townhouse 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.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]"None of the officers heard gunshots until they were directed at us at about 8 o'clock," Carlson said. The woman who escaped the home also told police the victims were shot before she fled.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]The names of the gunman and his three victims were being withheld until the coroner could confirm their identities and notify next of kin, authorities said.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]The episode kept residents in much of the surrounding community awake overnight, as police notified neighbors of an emergency situation and evacuated several adjacent blocks.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]One neighbor, Sunil Pawar, 59, said he received a reverse 911 call advising him to stay inside and away from windows before police later showed up to ring doorbells and escort residents of the townhouse development to safety.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]Pawar said he opted to stay put, later hearing gunshots, followed by the voices of police calling to the gunman though a bullhorn, saying, "Sonny, we want to talk to you, pick up the phone, Sonny."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]Another neighbor, Michael Ignace, 46, said he had previously spoken with the man suspected of the shooting, and "he seemed like a reasonable guy, and we talked about motorcycles."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px]The standoff and shooting unfolded just a few miles south of the Aurora movie theater where 12 people were killed and 58 others wounded when a lone gunman opened fire there in July during a midnight showing of the Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]The suspect in that rampage, former college student James Holmes, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing in which prosecutors will seek to convince a judge they have sufficient evidence to put him on trial.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px]The Colorado movie theater killings had ranked as deadliest mass shooting in the United States last year until a December 14 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman shot 20 school children and six adults to death before taking his own life. The shooter in that case also had killed his mother at their home.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px](Reporting by Keith Coffman in Aurora, with additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Steve Gorman; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Eric Walsh)[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12px]http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/0...8W20130105[/SIZE]

wow another sad story .what the hell is going on in [SIZE=12px]AURORA, Colo.holly =([/SIZE]