A tragic incident unfolded in Michigan when a man drove his vehicle through the front doors of a Mormon church, opened fire with an assault rifle, and set the building on fire, leaving at least four people dead and eight others injured.
Authorities identified the attacker as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, a former U.S. Marine from Burton. The rampage ended in a fatal shootout with police as the church was engulfed in flames and thick smoke.
Two of the shooting victims died and eight others were hospitalized, officials said. Several hours after the shooting, police reported finding at least two more bodies in the charred remains of the church, which had not yet been cleared and may contain other victims.
“There are still individuals who haven't been accounted for,” Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye stated during a press conference. He added that there were hundreds of people inside the church at the time Sanford crashed into the building.
The police received the first call about the attack at 10:25 a.m. local time. Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye confirmed this information at a press conference.
Two law enforcement officers, one from the state Department of Natural Resources and another from Grand Blanc Township, rushed to the scene within 30 seconds of receiving calls and engaged the suspect in an exchange of gunfire, shooting him dead in the parking lot about eight minutes after the incident began, Renye said.
Investigators will search the shooter's home and phone records in search of a motive, Renye said.
U.S. military records show Sanford was a U.S. Marine from 2004 to 2008 and an Iraq war veteran.
Coincidentally, another 40-year-old Marine veteran who served in Iraq is a suspect in a North Carolina shooting that killed three people and wounded five others less than 14 hours before the Michigan incident.
Police in Southport, North Carolina, accused Nigel Max Edge of firing on a waterfront bar from a boat on Saturday night. Edge has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder, police said.
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.
Source: Reuters
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