Suspect who 'opened fire on Michigan worshippers before setting church on fire' named

The man suspected to have killed worshippers at a church before setting it on fire has been named.

Thomas Jacob Sanford is alleged to have opened fire inside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Michigan during a Sunday service before setting the building ablaze, killing at least two people and injuring several others before police shot him, authorities said.

The suspect is reportedly a US Marine veteran based on his mum’s Facebook page and served in Iraq from 2004-2008. Social media accounts believed to be connected to Sanford also claim he’s a family man, with a wife and young son.

Hundreds of people were inside the church in Grand Blanc, 60 miles north of Detroit, when a man rammed a pickup truck through the front door, then got out of the vehicle and started shooting, Police Chief William Renye told reporters. Police believe he “deliberately” set the building on fire.

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After the suspect left the church, two officers pursued him and “engaged in gunfire,” Sheriff Renye said, with the suspect killed. Flames and smoke could be seen pouring from the church for hours before the blaze was put out. First responders were then sifting through the wreckage.

“We do believe we will find some additional victims once we find the area where the fire was,” Sheriff Renye said.

Police initially said nine people were injured. When Sheriff Renye later announced that one additional person had died from a gunshot wound at a hospital. He did not say whether that person had been included in the number of injured.

Police did not yet have a motive for the fire or shooting. Investigators are searching the suspect’s residence in nearby Burton. Authorities did not provide any additional details about the suspect, including whether he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.

It was the latest of many shooting attacks on houses of worship in the US over the past 20 years, including one in August that killed two children during Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis.

President Donald Trump said he was briefed on the shooting. In a social media post, he applauded the FBI, who local authorities said are sending 100 agents to the area, for responding. “PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote.

The church building, circled by a parking lot and a large lawn, is near residential areas and a Jehovah’s Witness church. It is in Grand Blanc Township, a community of roughly 40,000 people outside Flint.

Timothy Jones, 48, said his family is part of another Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation, or ward, about 15 minutes away, but that his children were at the Grand Blanc Township ward the night before the shooting for a youth fall festival. He and his family moved to Flint two years ago in large part because of how strong the faith’s community is in the area.

As people in his congregation got word of the shooting from texts and phone calls during their own Sunday service, the church went into lockdown and police came as a precaution, he said. His children were “frantically, just trying to get word that people were okay.”