Michigan church shooting latest updates: Suspect Thomas Sanford hated Mormons for ‘believing they’re above Jesus’ – UK Times

Pastor Jerome Taylor has said the shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township Sunday was “surreal.”

Taylor is a pastor at the Eastgate Baptist Church, next door to where shooting suspect Thomas Jacob Sanford lived in Burton.

“It’s certainly surreal and unexpected,” Taylor told the Detroit Free Press. “Many of our church members asked the same question, ‘How could this happen with one of the members of our neighborhood?’ [But] Mr. Sanford had very little affiliation with our church aside from sharing a property line.”

Leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from across the country are helping “traumatized” members after a gunman opened fire on the Church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, on Sunday.

“Members of our local congregation and members of the church and leaders of the church from other parts of the country are here and seeking to help,” Greg Geiger, director of communications for the metro Detroit region of the Church, told the Detroit Free Press Monday.

Geiger continued: “We’re at this moment, meeting with our senior leaders to talk about the needs of the individual members of our congregation, who of course, are traumatized, physically, emotionally, in every other way.

“So our focus at the moment really is on how can we help, help the survivors and all those impacted … to make it through and to begin to deal with the feelings that they have.”

On Sunday, a gunman opened fire on worshippers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, before setting the place on fire.

Five people died, including suspected shooter Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, and eight more were injured.

Here are some photos of the damage to the church:

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told CNN Monday night the shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township on Sunday has “all the hallmarks of a hate crime.”

 “We’ve done a lot in our state to try to combat this sort of extremism. We have passed a new hate crimes law, a new, institutional desecration law, and we also have extreme risk protection orders, which are red flag laws,” Nessel told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, told CNN Monday night police need “a minute” to find the motive behind Thomas Jacob Sanford, who has been accused of opening fire on worshippers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township on Sunday.

When asked how close law enforcement was to determining a motive for the shooting, Slotkin said, “They’re doing their jobs, which takes time. But that’s exploiting equipment from the shooter. That means interviewing a ton of witnesses, but also family members and friends.”

She continued:  “We just ask people to let law enforcement do their job. They came to protect us and they’re gonna do that. They just gotta have a minute. “

The man who shot up a Michigan church and set a fire that killed four people was a former U.S. Marine who expressed animosity about the Mormon faith to a city council candidate knocking on doors just days before the attack.

Thomas Sanford, who was known as Jake, drove a pickup truck with a deer skull and antlers strapped to the front and two large American flags flapping in the wind in the bed, according to friends and social media posts.

Sanford, 40, smashed that truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township, according to authorities. He was killed by police officers who rushed to the scene Sunday, 60 miles northwest of Detroit. The building was destroyed.

Kris Johns, a council candidate in Burton, said he met Sanford while introducing himself to voters last week. He told MLive.com that Sanford was pleasant but became “unhinged” when he suddenly began talking about the Mormon church, as it is widely known.

People who knew Thomas Jacob Sanford, the man accused of opening fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, on Sunday, said he seemed “normal” and “like a nice guy.”

“He was happy to see me. He just seemed normal,” Ryan Lopez, Sanford’s former high school classmate who last saw the suspected shooter at a gym a few weeks ago, told The New York Times.

Randy Thronson, Sanford’s neighbor, told the NYT he hadn’t talked to the suspected shooter in roughly two years, but he “seemed like a nice guy.”

“Something must have happened, snapped somehow,” he said.

After Thomas Jacob Sanford rammed his pickup into the front doors of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, he allegedly aimed an assault-style rifle at the worshippers inside, killing four people and wounding eight others.

A Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, Sanford, 40, then set fire to the structure, according to authorities. As terrified parishioners tried to escape the blaze, Sanford was killed at the scene by police.

Retiree Lori Farmer, who lives nearby with husband Ron, told The Independent that she was “shocked” when she heard Sanford identified as the shooter. Farmer and her husband, who worked with Sanford, are “still reeling,” she said.

“He was a good guy,” Farmer said. “All about his family.”

Sanford, who met her husband while driving a truck for Coca-Cola, had gone ice fishing with the couple, and once helped them remove a big spruce tree from their property, according to Farmer. Sanford and his wife, who was part of the LDS church, had a son with special needs; Sanford reportedly had gotten his tattoos removed so he could participate in LDS ceremonies.

Read more from Justin Rohrlich:

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, and Republican state Representative Mike Mueller came together to share a message in the wake of Sunday’s shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.

“Take a breath. Don’t believe every theory you read on social media,” Slotkin said.

Mueller added, “Wait for the FBI to do their investigation. They’ll find the motive, and let’s heal as a community.”