Grand Blanc, September 29, 2025 – The Europe Today: A man rammed his vehicle into the front doors of a Michigan church on Sunday before opening fire with an assault rifle and setting the building ablaze, killing at least four people and injuring eight others, officials confirmed. The assailant was later shot dead by police after an exchange of gunfire.
Authorities identified the attacker as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, a former U.S. Marine from Burton, Michigan. He deliberately targeted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, which was engulfed in flames as smoke billowed from the structure.
Police said two victims were fatally shot, while eight others were hospitalized with injuries. Hours later, at least two additional bodies were recovered from the charred remains of the church. Officials warned that more victims may still be unaccounted for.
“There are some that are unaccounted for,” Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said during a press briefing.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reported that Sanford likely used gasoline to accelerate the blaze, while investigators also recovered explosives at the site. The FBI is leading the case, classifying it as an “act of targeted violence.”
Hundreds of worshippers were inside the church when the attack occurred, Chief Renye added. Two officers arrived within 30 seconds of emergency calls and confronted the gunman, fatally shooting him in the church parking lot roughly eight minutes after the assault began.
Sanford, a U.S. Marine from 2004 to 2008 and an Iraq War veteran, left behind a home and digital devices that investigators are now examining for clues to his motive.
Coincidentally, less than 14 hours before the Michigan rampage, another 40-year-old Marine veteran, identified as Nigel Max Edge, was accused of killing three people and wounding five others in a shooting at a waterfront bar in Southport, North Carolina. Edge, also an Iraq veteran, faces multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
Witnesses in Grand Blanc described scenes of chaos and horror. One woman, identified 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.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, in a statement on Truth Social, condemned the incident, calling it “yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America” and urging that “THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”
Grand Blanc, a town of about 7,700 people located 60 miles northwest of Detroit, is now mourning a tragedy that has shocked the community.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, the Michigan attack marked the 324th mass shooting in the United States in 2025, and the third within 24 hours — following the North Carolina incident and a separate shooting at a casino in Eagle Pass, Texas, which left at least two people dead and several others wounded.
