A tragic mass shooting rocked a Michigan community on Sunday when a gunman crashed his vehicle into a church, opened fire, and set the building ablaze, leaving at least four people dead and eight others injured before being killed in a shootout with police.
Authorities identified the assailant as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, a former U.S. Marine from Burton and an Iraq war veteran. Sanford rammed his vehicle through the front doors of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, where hundreds of congregants were gathered.
He then unleashed gunfire with an assault rifle and used accelerants,to be gasoline, to ignite the church, officials said.
Two victims were confirmed dead at the scene, while eight others were hospitalized.
Later, investigators recovered at least two more bodies from the charred remains of the church, which remained unstable and could contain additional victims. “There are some that are unaccounted for,” Police Chief William Renye told reporters.
Two officers responded within 30 seconds of the first emergency calls and confronted Sanford in the church parking lot. He was fatally shot about eight minutes after the assault began.
Explosives were also found at the scene, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The FBI has taken over the probe, calling the rampage “an act of targeted violence.”
Witnesses described scenes of horror and chaos. One woman, who identified herself only as Paula, told WXYZ television: “I lost friends in there and some of my little primary children that I teach on Sundays were hurt. It’s very devastating for me.”
The incident occurred just hours after another Iraq war veteran, Nigel Max Edge, 40, allegedly killed three people and wounded five others in a shooting at a bar in Southport, North Carolina.
Edge, a decorated Marine who had legally changed his name from Sean William DeBevoise, has been charged with murder and attempted murder.
In Washington, President Donald Trump condemned the Michigan attack, calling it “yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States” and demanding urgent action to end what he described as “an epidemic of violence.”
Grand Blanc, a town of about 7,700 residents, is located 60 miles northwest of Detroit.
The massacre was the 324th mass shooting in the United States in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and one of three deadly shootings within 24 hours, including a separate attack at a Texas casino that killed two people.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
