❓WHAT HAPPENED: A gunman killed four people and injured eight at a Mormon church in Michigan before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The suspect was identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, a former Marine from Burton, Michigan.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The attack occurred on Sunday at a church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan.
💬KEY QUOTE: “From what I understand based on my conversation with the FBI director, all they know right now is that this was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
🎯IMPACT: The attack has raised questions about the motive and planning, with federal authorities investigating the targeting of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The deadly attack on a Mormon church in Michigan on Sunday that saw four killed and eight injured was motivated by the perpetrator’s hatred of Mormonism, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old former Marine from Burton, Michigan, has been identified by authorities as the gunman, with Sanford being neutralized by police at the scene.
“From what I understand based on my conversation with the FBI director, all they know right now is that this was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith,” Leavitt said during a televised interview on Monday morning. “They are trying to understand more about this, how premeditated it was, how much planning went into it, whether he left a note, all of those questions are yet to be answered, but certainly will be answered by the FBI.”
Karoline Leavitt on the suspected motive behind yesterday’s Grand Blanc, Michigan church shooting:
“This was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith, and they are trying to understand more about this and how premeditated it was”
pic.twitter.com/Offo8xEe5u— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 29, 2025
Leavitt did not reveal whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had indicated whether Sanford had a personal connection to the church or specific members. According to police, Sanford drove his truck into the church in Grand Blanc Township before opening fire on hundreds attending the Mormon service. He is also believed to have set the building on fire using an accelerant. A bomb squad was dispatched after improvised explosive devices were discovered at the crime scene.
The Michigan shooting is the second violent attack targeting Christians in the U.S. in just over a month. On August 27, anti-Trump transgender Robin Westman, previously Robert, opened fire at a back-to-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which claimed the lives of two young children and left at least 17 others wounded. Westman killed himself at the scene.
Mormonism has long been the subject of religious persecution and targeted violence. Between May 1857 and July 1858, Mormon settlers and U.S. federal government troops faced off in the then-Utah territory in what is known as the Utah War. The conflict, sparked by Mormon fears that federal troops had been sent to forcibly remove them, stemmed in part from Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs’s (D) issuance of Missouri Executive Order 44, known as the Mormon Extermination Order, in 1838.
The order directed General John Bullock Clark and Missouri’s state militia to forcibly expel Mormons from the state. Notably, Boggs’s order remained on the books until it was formally rescinded in 1976.
NEW: Mormon church in Michigan is on fire following an active shooter incident, leaving multiple victims.
The incident happened at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc.
The shooter is reportedly down.pic.twitter.com/lmKdUIoeIv
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 28, 2025
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