Roundup: U.S. police name gunman in Colorado Springs shooting

An anti-government drug user has been identified as the gunman who shot dead three people over the weekend, police said Monday.

Noah Harpham, a 33-year-old Colorado Springs native, was also shot to death in a brief but intense gunbattle shortly after the rampage began Saturday morning, police said in a statement.

Harpham was active on social media just prior to the shooting and posted a one-page blog that read: "Is my Dad in a Cult ... Is It Satanic?!"

The shooter, who killed two mothers and a 35-year-old bicyclist, also made Twitter references to Edward Snowden and libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, whose "anti-state" views are well-known.

According to a book written by Harpham's mother, her son was a recovering alcoholic.

Witnesses saw him walking "calmly" down a quiet, wooded street two hours after daylight on Halloween, near downtown Colorado Springs, holding two weapons.

Harpham was brandishing an automatic AK-47 and a handgun and first aimed the rifle at a woman before spotting cyclist Andrew Myers, who pleaded for his life.

Harpham coldly squeezed the trigger without saying a word, according to a witness, who saw the cyclist falling to the concrete sidewalk.

Witnesses then saw Harpham walking two blocks away where he stopped to shoot two women to death on the front porch of a drug rehab home where they were residents.

Jennifer Vasquez, 42, who was sitting in a chair, was hit in the jaw by an automatic rifle bullet, and her roommate, Christy Galella, 34, was killed when she opened the door to see what was going on. Both women had two children.

Several minutes later and a few blocks away, Harpham engaged in heavy gunfire with four patrolmen before being killed, according to Colorado Springs Police.

Harpham's mother, Heather Kopp, wrote the 2013 book, "Sober Mercies: How Love Caught Up With a Christian Drunk," about her son's battle with alcohol addiction.

The URL used for Harpham's website is linked to an Internet username called Ptwnblzr, which brags about using stimulant drugs and marijuana "twice daily," according to a media analysis.

The shooter also had an account on an adult webcam site called Chaturbate.

Earlier Monday, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers released a statement to express his condolences to the victims' families.

"The perpetrator was shot by police and there is no continuing threat to the community," he said.

Colorado Springs is a conservative, relatively quiet city 50 miles (about 80 km) south of Denver, where more than 100 denominations of Christianity are practiced. Endi