- Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, is a 2003 graduate of Goodrich High School and former Marine
- Police say he was shot after he drove his truck — emblazoned with American flags — into a Mormon church, began shooting and set fire to the church
- Police have not ascribed a motive but the man drove by other churches to launch the attack
GRAND BLANC — Police and federal investigators identified a 40 year-old Burton man who is an Iraq War veteran as the mass shooter who drove his truck into a Mormon service Sunday and set the church ablaze.
Thomas Jacob Sanford was shot and killed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc after a gunfight with a police officer and Michigan Department of Natural Resources officer.
Hundreds were in the service at the time, and at least four people died in the attack. At least eight more were wounded. Police said more fatalities are possible.
Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye spoke to reporters briefly late Sunday and took no questions. Authorities have not released a possible motive.
“I know our community is hurting right now,” Renye said, flanked by representatives of local law enforcement, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and US Attorney Jerome Gorgon.
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Online photos and social media indicate that Sanford was a former Marine, 2003 graduate of Goodrich High School, a hunter and father of a 10-year-old.
Sanford’s attack started when he drove his truck — its bed adorned with two American flags — into the church at about 10:30 a.m. as members were gathered for services.
A 2007 article in the Clarkston News quoted him as saying he was expected to serve as a wrecker driver in the Marines in Fallujah, Iraq. Media photos of the truck that drove into the church had an Iraq War license plate.
The Clarkston News article indicated he came from a military family. His father, also named Thomas Sanford, described him as a “homegrown kid who misses his family when he’s gone. Jake’s going voluntarily and plans on returning to this community when his service is over.
“We’re very proud of him.”
The younger Sanford in 2016 purchased a brick bungalow with a half on East Atherton in Burton, according to city records.
That same year, an article from Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, indicated that Sanford’s son was the first in the nation to receive an experimental therapy for abnormally high levels of insulin.
The article indicated that the child was born premature in Flint and was in a neonatal care unit before the family found care in Texas. The article quoted Sanford as saying the call from a Texas doctor was a “truly a sign from heaven.
“We put our faith to the wind and it took us to Texas,” the article quoted Sanford as saying.
Police did not discuss why they believe Sanford targeted the Mormon church. Several others in the area are closer to his home, according to Google maps.
Sanford has been registered to vote at the Atherton Road address since 2017, records show.
An online image of Sanford’s home shows a 2016 “Trump” political sign on the fence, above a sign.
Voting records do not indicate how Sanford voted but he has voted in every November election since 2016, Mark Grebner, a Democratic consultant who collects voter and petition data, told Bridge.
Sanford did sign two recent petitions, Grebner said, one for the so-called Unlock Michigan efforts to repeal the governor’s pandemic emergency powers and another supporting Right to Life Michigan’s efforts to restrict abortion in the state.
The “unlock” efforts were a reaction to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders which called for lockdowns, school closures and mask mandates in 2020 and 2021.
The Legislature repealed the emergency order powers in 2021.
Other records indicate that Sanford had been a resident of Ford Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks, northeast of Springfield, in 2005 when he applied for a fishing license.
The facility has operated Maneuver Support Center of Excellence since 2000, training soldiers in the Army Engineer, Military Police and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) fields.
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