Four people were killed and eight others injured in the Sunday morning shooting at a Mormon church in Michigan, authorities announced Sunday evening.
Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye had previously said two people were killed in the attack at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints chapel. At a press conference Sunday evening, Renye said two additional bodies were found in the church.
The Associated Press reported eight other people were injured.
FBI special agent in charge Reuben Coleman said Sunday evening that the bureau has taken the lead on the investigation and the incident is being probed as an “act of targeted violence.”
President Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform earlier Sunday called the incident “a targeted attack on Christians.”
Officials identified the suspect as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, from nearby Burton, Mich. Officials said Sanford drove his vehicle into the church, fired at congregators inside and set the building on fire.
James Deir, with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’s (ATF) Detroit office, said at the press conference that investigators believe Sanford used gasoline to set the building on fire. Deir added that officials found “suspected explosive devices,” at the scene, but it is unclear whether they were used to set the church ablaze.
Sanford was killed by police in the back parking lot of the church within eight minutes of the first 911 call, Renye said. At a press conference earlier Sunday, the police chief said that first responders on the scene and adults in the church shielded children from the incoming gunfire.
Renye noted that there are others unaccounted for, and that officials are “working tirelessly to find additional bodies.”
“The entire church has not been cleared because it’s a total loss due to the fire,” Renye added. “So these first responders right now, they’re in recovery mode, they’re trying to fight through all the debris from the fire.”
Michigan State Police spokeswoman Lt. Kim Vetter also said Sunday that other churches in the area have received bomb threats, and officials have since cleared those locations.
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