A gunman crashed his car through the entrance doors of a Michigan church, fired an assault rifle and caused a fire that killed at least four and injured at least eight others before he was killed in a gun battle with police, officials reported.
Police identified the arsonist, Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, a former U.S. Marine from the neighboring town of Burton, who purposely ignited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was on fire and filled with smoke.
Two of the victims of the shooting were killed and eight were hospitalized, said officials. Police, hours after the shooting, reported discovering at least two additional bodies in the burned-out church, which was still not cleared and could hold additional victims.
“There are some that are unaccounted for,” Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said at a press conference.
A U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives official said the shooter is thought to have used an accelerant – likely gasoline – to ignite the fire, and that explosives were found. The FBI described it as “an act of targeted violence” for which it was investigating.
There were hundreds of people inside the church when Sanford drove his car into the building, Renye said.
Two police officers responded to the scene in 30 seconds of receiving distress calls and encountered the suspect in a shootout, killing him in the parking lot around eight minutes from the time of the attack, Renye said.
Police will dig through the shooter’s house and phone for a motive, Renye said.
U.S. military records indicate Sanford was a U.S. Marine from 2004 through 2008 and an Iraq war veteran.
Coinidentally, another 40-year-old Iraq war veteran Marine is the suspect in a North Carolina shooting that killed three and injured five others less than 14 hours prior to the Michigan incident.
Southport, North Carolina police charged Nigel Max Edge with shooting a harbor-side bar from a boat Saturday night. Police said Edge faces three charges of first-degree murder and five attempted murder charges.
According to court records, a federal lawsuit that Edge had filed against the U.S. government, and others, describes him as a decorated Marine who suffered severe wounds including traumatic brain injury in Iraq. The lawsuit, which was dismissed, showed Edge was previously known as Sean William DeBevoise before changing his name.
‘I LOST FRIENDS’
In Michigan, one witness told WXYZ television she heard “a big bang and the doors blew.”
“I lost friends there and some of my little Sunday primary children I teach were injured. It’s very heartbreaking to me,” said the woman, who identified herself as Paula.
Michigan church: Gunman kills at least four, injures eight
President Donald Trump in a statement on Truth Social declared that the shooting “seems to be yet another targeted attack against Christians in the United States of America” and that, “THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST STOP, IMMEDIATELY!”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon church, adheres to the teachings of Jesus and also Joseph Smith’s prophecies, a 19th-century American.
Grand Blanc, a population of 7,700, lies some 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Detroit.
The Michigan rampage was the 324th mass shooting in America during 2025, the Gun Violence Archive reported.
It was also the third American mass shooting in under 24 hours, following the North Carolina one and another shooting later on at an Eagle Pass, Texas, casino that killed at least two individuals and injured multiple others.
