Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old U.S. Marine veteran from Burton, Michigan, rammed his pickup truck into the entrance of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township during a Sunday service on September 28, 2025, and fired an AR-15-style rifle at approximately 200 worshippers before setting the building ablaze.
Four civilians died and eight others were injured, with Sanford killed in a shootout with responding officers.
The FBI has classified the attack as targeted violence and is leading the investigation alongside the ATF, as church leaders express devastation over the loss of life in what should have been a sanctuary of peace.
