Questions swirl after ex-Marine attacks Michigan church
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• Authorities still searching for motive
• White House official claims the Iraq War veteran ‘hated Mormons’
GRAND BLANC (Michigan): Authorities on Monday were working to determine why an ex-Marine drove his pickup truck into a Michigan church during a Sunday service, opened fire and set the building ablaze, killing at least four people before he died in a shootout with police.
Hundreds of worshippers were inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, when the suspect rammed his pickup truck into the front doors on Sunday morning, officials said.
Two victims were shot to death, and two other bodies were discovered hours later in the rubble of the church, which officials said was deliberately set on fire.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Utah, follows the teachings of Jesus but also the prophecies of Joseph Smith, a 19th-century American. It is informally known as the Mormon Church, a term that its leadership discourages.
Officials warned late on Sunday that some people remained unaccounted for, and that more bodies could yet be found as investigators sifted through the burned-out ruins of the building. At least eight people were wounded.
On Monday, a man drove a car through a barricade that had been set up near the church, CNN reported. The driver was taken into custody, and his identity and intent were not immediately clear, the network said.
The suspect in the shooting was identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, from the nearby town of Burton. US military records show Sanford was an Iraq War veteran who served in the Marine Corps from 2004 to 2008.
Authorities did not offer a possible motive, saying they would search the suspect’s home and phone. Grand Blanc Township, a suburb of Flint with a population around 40,000, is about 60 miles northwest of Detroit.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that she spoke with FBI Director Kash Patel on Monday about the attack.
“All they know right now is this was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith, and they are trying to understand more about this, how premeditated it was, how much planning went into it, whether he left a note,” she said, using a common term for the church.
Leavitt said the shooter’s family was cooperating with the FBI.
A city council candidate in nearby Burton told the Detroit Free Press that he had spoken with Sanford about a week ago, and that the suspect described members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as “the antichrist.” The candidate, Kris Johns, told the newspaper that the two men did not discuss politics, but that he saw a campaign sign for President Trump on the suspect’s fence.
Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2025
