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Council candidate Kris Johns (Deadline Detroit photo)
Grand Blanc Township — Each time there’s a mass shooting, law enforcement, the media, and the public try to figure out the motive. This time, it may have been hatred for the Mormon church.
On Sunday, Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, an ex-Marine who did a tour in Iraq, rammed his pickup truck into the front door of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc and opened fire with an assault weapon. He also set the church on fire.
Two people were fatally shot and two more people were found dead after the fire. Eight people were wounded and Sanford was ultimately killed by law enforcement.
Kris Johns, 44, a city council candidate in Burton, a suburb of Flint, said Monday that while canvassing for his campaign on Sept. 22, he spoke with Sandford in his driveway.
Johns said initially Sanford told a little bit about htmself.
“He just told me about himself, that he was a veteran, that he was a Marine. He went to Iraq. He experienced drug addiction issues. And this happened very quickly. He then moved to Utah to plow snow and then had met a woman. This all happened probably within minutes of meeting each other. He shared all this information about him.”
Then Sanford steered the conversation to the subject of the Mormons and talked about the time he lived in Utah, plowing snow and dating the sister of Miss Utah.
“I will never forget this: He said, ‘Mormons are the anti-Christ.’”
Johns said Sanford told him the Mormons frowned on his tattoos.
“I knew there was a level of anger. Yes, I think that’s undeniable. But nothing that would indicate he would do something violent.”
Johns said Sanford displayed a Trump sign at his home, but the two didn't discuss politics except for the Second Amendment.
Thomas Jacob Sanford
The Washington Post reports that Sandra Winter, Sanford's former landlord and housemate, said that while he was living in Utah 15 years ago, Sandford dated a woman who wanted him to convert to the faith. The question of conversion was “a big part of the conflict in his life at the time,” Winter said.
Years ago, people in small communities like Grand Blanc would say they never thought a mass shooting could happen in their town.
On Monday, some Grand Blanc residents interviewed said they realize these things can happen anywhere.
The FBI is now the lead agency in the investigation.
