On the morning of the 28th, a shooting occurred at a church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, resulting in at least 4 deaths and 8 injuries. This is the second major mass shooting committed within 24 hours by a retired veteran who had participated in the "Iraqi Freedom" operation.
The attacked church belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) and the incident happened during a worship service attended by over a hundred people.
According to police, the 40-year-old gunman, Sanford, drove at high speed and crashed through the church’s front entrance, then opened fire on the panicked congregation, and subsequently set the building on fire intentionally, causing the blaze to spread.
Police exchanged fire with Sanford and killed him. Due to the severe damage to the church building, police do not rule out the possibility of discovering more casualties.
A spokesperson for the US Marine Corps confirmed that Sanford, the gunman in the Michigan shooting, served in the Marine Corps from 2004 to 2008 and was deployed to Iraq for a year. Just 12 hours before this church massacre, in North Carolina, another Marine Corps veteran who had also participated in the Iraq War and received the Purple Heart, Edge, stormed into a bar and opened fire, resulting in 3 deaths and 8 injuries.
FBI Takes Over Investigation
Due to the seriousness of the incident, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken over the investigation of the Michigan church shooting. The head of the FBI Detroit office stated that authorities are investigating the case as a “targeted act of violence,” suggesting there may have been a specific motive and target rather than random killing.
US President Trump wrote on his own social media platform "Truth Social," describing the incident as “quite terrible,” and stated that “the suspect is dead, but many things remain to be clarified. This appears to be yet another attack targeting American Christians.”