After a gunman killed four people and injured eight more at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, on Sunday, a member of the church has raised money for the shooter’s family. So far, the fundraiser has brought in more than $200,000 in donations.
According to the fundraiser, the shooter, Thomas Jacob Sanford, left behind a wife and children. One of his sons suffers from “serious medical challenges that require ongoing care, treatment and specialized support,” fundraising organizer David Butler said.
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Butler said he has no connection to the Sanford family or to Grand Blanc. “But James teaches us that ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,’” Butler wrote. “The purpose of this GiveSendGo is to do that. Every donation will go to help provide for the Sanford family daily needs, provide for ongoing medical treatment, and create some stability in a time of heartbreak and upheaval.”
Shooter was a veteran with anti-Mormon views
The FBI said on Monday that the 40-year-old Sanford, a U.S. Marine veteran from Burton, Michigan, is responsible for a violent attack at an LDS church in Michigan. Sanford drove his truck into the church’s front entrance, opened fire on the congregation and set the building on fire. Police killed Sanford at the scene during a shootout.
Kris Johns, a Burton City Council candidate, told The Associated Press that he had spoken to Sanford while going door-to-door in Sanford’s neighborhood just weeks prior to the attack.
“We had a quick introduction. We spoke about our children. He spoke about his background,” Johns said. “And quickly, the first question that he had for me was like, ‘What’s your position on guns?’ I said, ‘I support the Second Amendment.’ That was really the end of it. And then the very next question, and he leans in, he goes, ‘What do you know about Mormons?’”
Johns said Sanford expressed animosity towards the LDS church and allegedly called Mormons “the antichrist.” Nothing in that brief interaction seemed violent or threatening, according to Johns.
“He didn’t say anything about an attack,” Johns told the AP. “And that’s the part that’s just surreal that he at one point makes, I think a genuine connection to my child, and then six days later turns his truck into a missile.”
FBI continues investigation with multiple agencies
Even though Sanford was allegedly motivated by anti-Mormon beliefs when he carried out the deadly attack on the Mormon church, thousands of members of the Mormon community have still chosen to donate money to support Sanford’s surviving widow and children.
The FBI is collaborating with the Grand Blanc Township Police and Fire Departments, the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Attorney’s Office and additional partners in investigating the attack.
