A gunman left a Michigan community reeling over the weekend after an attack at a church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, killed four people and injured eight others.
Police said the Sept. 28 shooting at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was carried out by a gunman and former Marine, 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford.
Sanford, of Burton, rammed a pickup truck bearing two American flags into the chapel during morning services, set it ablaze, and used an assault rifle to open fire on hundreds of worshippers. Police said he used gasoline to set the building on fire.
A local political candidate told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, that Sanford had ranted against Mormons during a conversation a week before the attack.
One victim, a church member, died at the scene, and a second died at a local hospital. At a press conference on the night of Sunday, Sept. 28, Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said that two others who were inside the establishment had been identified in the charred debris, the Detroit Free Press reported.
"It was very much standard anti-LDS talking points that you would find on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook," said Kris Johns, who has spoken with local police and the FBI.