The man suspected of ramming his truck into a Mormon church in Michigan before entering, shooting, and killing multiple people has been identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, the New York Post reported on Sunday afternoon.
Sanford is a 40-year-old former Marine who served in the Iraq War from 2004 to 2008, according to posts from his mom’s Facebook account.
He is a resident of Burton, Michigan, which is about eight miles from Grand Blanc Township, where the attack happened.
“Social media accounts believed to be connected to Sanford show he’s a family man, with a wife and young son,” the Post reported.
Sanford is suspected of crashing his Chevy Silverado into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints while hundreds of people were there for Sunday service. He then opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, killing two people and injuring at least nine others.
Sources told the Post “several improvised explosive devices” were found at the church, which a bomb squad is currently investigating. A fire was set at the church, and law enforcement officials believe Sanford started the blaze.
President Donald Trump, shortly after the shooting, said it “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians” in the U.S.
The attack on the LDS church comes a month after the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. President Trump has said he wants his second administration to focus more on anti-Christian attacks and bias; here is what he said during a speech at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. earlier this month:
“There is a tremendous anti-Christian bias. We don’t hear about it. You hear about anti-Semitic, but you don’t hear about anti-Christian. They have a strong anti-Christian bias, but we’re ending that rapidly, I will tell you. We’re in a much different world today than we were one year ago.”
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