Thomas Jacob Sanford was a former US Marine sergeant. (Source: X)
Authorities are investigating why a former US Marine and Iraq war veteran opened fire on worshippers at a Mormon church in Michigan, killing at least four people and injuring eight others before dying in a shootout with police.
Officials described the assault as an “act of targeted violence” but said the motive remains unclear. The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
Sanford, a former US Marine sergeant, served in Iraq between 2007 and 2008 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After leaving the military, he worked in a series of civilian jobs including landscaping, snow removal and truck driving.
He had graduated from a nearby high school in 2004 and was known locally as a “proud veteran” and “family man”. Neighbours say he would clear snow from their driveways in the winter and rarely spoke about politics or religion.
But Sanford’s social media presence told a different story. A 2019 photo showed him wearing a Trump 2020 campaign shirt with the slogan “Make Liberals Cry Again.” Another image captured by Google Street View earlier this year showed a Trump-Pence sign fixed to the fence outside his Michigan home.
Sanford married a high school acquaintance in 2016, and the couple had a son born with congenital hyperinsulinism, a rare condition that causes dangerously low blood sugar.
A GoFundMe campaign launched in 2015 raised over $3,000 to support the boy’s treatment. In a local news interview, Sanford said, “Don’t ever take having healthy kids for granted. I spent four years in the Marine Corps and was in Iraq, and this is still the most unique thing to deal with.”
Investigators say Sanford drove a silver pickup truck, flying two American flags, into the church at about 10:25 am local time. He then opened fire with an assault rifle before being shot dead by responding officers roughly eight minutes later in the church car park.
Two people were killed immediately, while two more bodies were later found in the debris after the fire was extinguished. Authorities also discovered several suspected explosive devices.
“Something must have happened — snapped somehow,” said Randy Thronson, a neighbour who described Sanford as “a nice guy” who had once helped shovel snow for free.
US President Donald Trump called the Michigan shooting “an epidemic of violence that must end immediately.”
The attack is the latest in a string of deadly assaults on churches and religious institutions across the United States this year.
