{"id":166202,"date":"2025-09-29T18:11:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-we-know-on-thomas-jacob-sanford-suspect-in-the-michigan-church-shooting-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:11:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:11:31","slug":"what-we-know-on-thomas-jacob-sanford-suspect-in-the-michigan-church-shooting-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-we-know-on-thomas-jacob-sanford-suspect-in-the-michigan-church-shooting-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know on Thomas Jacob Sanford, suspect in the Michigan church shooting – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The person accused in a fatal shooting and fire Sunday<\/a> at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, is a 40-year-old area man with a military background.
Thomas Jacob Sanford is from Burton, a city of nearly 30,000 people roughly 6 miles from Grand Blanc Township. Both are suburbs of Flint.
Police said the attacker rammed the church with a vehicle, got out and opened fire with an assault rifle. James Deir, special agent in charge of the Detroit Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he also appears to have used an accelerant to start a fire.
Follow live updates here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
At least four people were killed in the attack, two of whom were shot, and eight were injured.
Officers killed Sanford in a parking lot behind the church, police said.
The FBI\u2019s special agent in charge of the bureau’s Detroit field office, Reuben Coleman, said Sunday night that the bureau is looking for a motive.
\u201cThe FBI is now leading the investigation and is investigating this as an act of targeted violence,\u201d he said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in a Monday press conference, acknowledged the desire to question what happened and to determine a motive. But she also urged people to refrain from theorizing as authorities continue to investigate.
\u201cAt this juncture, speculation is unhelpful and it can be downright dangerous,\u201d Whitmer said. \u201cSo just ask that people lower the temperature of rhetoric.\u201d
Sanford joined the Marine Corps in 2004, according to Marine records, and held the titles of organizational automotive mechanic and vehicle recovery operator.
In 2007, he started a nearly seven-month deployment under Operation Iraqi Freedom and left the corps a few months later, the records show.
Sanford achieved the rank of sergeant and had his last duty assignment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before he left the Marines in June 2008, according to the records.
He was awarded the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal, the records show.
An image uploaded to Facebook in 2019 shows Thomas Jacob Sanford<\/a> wearing a \u201cTRUMP 2020\u201d shirt.
The image was uploaded to \u201cBrantlee\u2019s Journey,\u201d a page that provides updates on Sanford\u2019s son, Brantlee, and his battle with congenital hyperinsulinism, a rare condition in which the insulin cells of the pancreas produce too much insulin.
As of Sunday night there had been no motive established in the investigation, nor had there been any suggestion from authorities that Sanford\u2019s political views or his son\u2019s condition played a role in his thinking.
A 2007 article in the Clarkston News<\/a>, a publication in the village of Clarkston, about 20 miles southeast of Grand Blanc Township, said Sanford graduated in 2003 from Goodrich High School, about 12 miles east of the shooting site.
Goodrich Area Schools officials did not immediately respond to a request to confirm Sanford\u2019s attendance and graduation from the high school.
At the time, according to the article, Sanford was soon to be deployed to Fallujah, Iraq.
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing the culture and the people of Iraq,\u201d Sanford is quoted as saying. \u201cI\u2019ll return with the real news of the situation.\u201d
The article says a grandfather served in the Navy and an uncle served in the Marines, both in World War II. His father, Thomas Sanford, is quoted as saying: \u201cJake\u2019s going voluntarily and plans on returning to his community when his service is over. We are very proud of him.\u201d
A voicemail message left for a phone number listed for his parents was not returned. Attempts to reach his wife were unsuccessful.
CORRECTION<\/strong> (Sept. 29, 2025, 12:47 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated who said that the suspect used an accelerant. It was James Deir, special agent in charge of the ATF\u2019s Detroit Field Division, not Grand Blanc Township Police Chief Bill Renye.
Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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Profile news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe person accused in a fatal shooting and fire Sunday at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, is a 40-year-old area man with a military background.Thomas Jacob Sanford is from Burton, a city of nearly 30,000 people roughly 6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}