At least four people were killed and several others injured after a shooter targeted a Mormon church in the state of Michigan, United States and "deliberately" set the building on fire, authorities said.
A man who crashed his vehicle through the front doors of a Mormon church in Michigan opened fire with an assault rifle and set the church ablaze, killing four people and wounding at least eight others before dying in a shootout with police, officials said.
Police said the perpetrator, identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, a former US Marine from the nearby town of Burton, deliberately set fire to the church, which was engulfed in flames and billowing smoke.
Two of the shooting victims died and eight others were hospitalised, 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.
Local police chief William Renye said hundreds of people were in the church when Sanford drove into the building. Source: Getty / Bill Pugliano
Investigators will search the shooter's home and phone records in search of a motive, Renye said.
US military records show Sanford was a US Marine from 2004 to 2008 and an Iraq war veteran.
'I lost friends in there'
In Michigan, a woman who gave her name as Paula described her escape as "surreal" in an interview with WXYZ television.
"We heard a big bang and the doors blew. And then everybody rushed out," she said, adding that there was no security and the shooter opened fire on parishioners as they fled.
"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," she said.
The Mormons, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, follow the teachings of Jesus but also the prophecies of Joseph Smith, a 19th century American.
Grand Blanc, a town of 7,700 people, is about 100 km northwest of Detroit.
"My heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement posted to social media. "Violence anywhere especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable."
President Donald Trump in a statement on Truth Social said that the shooting "appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America" and said the FBI was on the scene. "THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!"
The Michigan rampage marked the 324th mass shooting in the US in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks such incidents and describes a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.
