According to officials, a shooter targeted a Mormon church in Michigan on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more. This latest tragic event was referred to by US President Donald Trump as a part of a nationwide “epidemic of violence.”
According to police in the northern US state, the gunman opened fire with an assault weapon after first ramming the church with his car and then setting it on fire.
Grand Blanc Police Chief William Renye told a press conference that eight minutes after the initial emergency call was received, the attacker was slain by police in the parking lot.
Renye said that in addition to two deceased victims announced earlier in the day, two more bodies had been recovered among debris at the burned-down church, with search efforts ongoing.
Earlier, he said eight people had also been wounded in the attack, one of whom was in critical condition.
AFP journalists in the adjacent town of Burton witnessed a large police presence outside the home of the suspected shooter, whom Renye identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40.
Renye and other officials did not provide any further details on Sanford. US media reports said he had grown up in the area and was a military veteran.
The majority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, a suburb of Flint, was reduced to ashes in the aftermath, according to photos.
Photographs also revealed two US flags on poles in the back of the truck, which was reportedly driven by the assailant into the side of the building.
At the news conference, FBI Special Agent Reuben Coleman stated that the FBI was now in charge of the investigation and was considering the attack “as an act of targeted violence.”
Hundreds were inside when the attack started, according to Renye, and there might be more casualties among the wreckage.
Trump called the shooting “horrendous” and said it was “yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
