Missionary shot in Lebanon

[dnice35]

SIDON, Lebanon (CNN) -- A gunman shot and killed an American missionary at close range Thursday morning in the Lebanese port city of Sidon, officials said.

Bonnie Weatherall, 30, was shot in the head three times with a 7 mm pistol shortly after she opened a health clinic around 8 a.m. (midnight EST) where she was a volunteer nurse, police and church officials said.

U.S. Embassy officials were sent to the port city, about 40 miles south of Beirut, to investigate the motive for the shooting.

The victim's husband Gary Weatherall, a Briton, issued a statement through the Christian and Missionary Alliance church, saying, "My wife died because of her love for the church and because she loved helping the people of Sidon and Lebanon."

Bonnie Weatherall had been a volunteer at the clinic for a little over a year, a church official said.

CNN's Brent Sadler contributed