Far below the piercing spires atop every Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel is a small sign beckoning those who may want to come in.
“Visitors welcome” messages are part of the uniform of meeting houses, standardized by the LDS church’s governing voices in Salt Lake City and serving as a testament to the faith’s robust evangelizing efforts.
But on Sunday morning, one visitor took advantage of the church’s open arms, ramming his truck into a chapel in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, then setting it on fire and shooting at worshippers before dying in a shootout with police.
At least four people were killed and eight others wounded. More are still unaccounted for. The chapel on McCandlish Road, a quiet stretch dotted with houses near a sprawling golf course and lake, is the latest place of worship devastated by America’s unrelenting gun violence, from a Catholic church in Minneapolis to a synagogue in Pittsburgh to a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
Now in central Michigan, the FBI is leading the investigation into the Michigan church shooting as an act of targeted violence, authorities said.
‘A big bang, and the doors flew open’
Sundays are “supposed to be a time of peace and a time of reflection and worship,” Timothy Jones, who belongs to an LDS congregation 15 minutes away from Grand Blanc, told the Associated Press.
But in the wake of violence at houses of worship, a shooting “feels inevitable,” he said, “and all the more tragic because of that.”
It had been what the denomination calls a “fast Sunday,” when members globally are encouraged once a month to forgo two meals and donate the food, or the money they would have spent on food, to the poor.
“This is a Sunday in which members of the church are being told to think of other people, to be charitable, to be kind, to reach out and give,” said Matthew Bowman, professor of history and religion at Claremont Graduate University.
Fasting is also common in the church in times of grieving – and those headed to the weekly 10 a.m. service in Grand Blanc had reason for it. Just a day earlier, the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson, had died.
By late Sunday morning, the worshippers about 60 miles northwest of Detroit had finished the Sacrament – the first half of the two-hour service, after which some congregants leave – when Paula and another churchgoer were helping a woman into a car, she told CNN affiliate WXYZ.
“We heard a big bang,” Paula said, “and the doors flew open.”
A four-door pickup with two American flags sitting straight up against the back window in the bed rammed into the front of the chapel.
The 40-year-old suspect, Thomas Jacob Sanford, fired several rounds from an assault weapon at the worshippers, police later said.
Gunfire and flames spread panic
Churchgoer Brian was trying to help some elderly ladies into his car when the gunman opened fire on their vehicle, he told WXYZ.
“We were trying to gather as many people as we could,” said Brian, his button-down shirt stained with blood and right hand wrapped in gauze. “I saw the active shooter come out of the building, and at that point, I just started trying to drive away.”
Paula couldn’t see the shooter, she said, and didn’t know whether he had entered the church.
“I didn’t know if we had to get down because we couldn’t see anybody,” she said.
Churchgoers rushed to protect children, Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said Sunday at a news conference.
“They were shielding the children,” he said, “moving them to safety.”
Gunfire, though, wasn’t the only danger: A fire had sparked in the red brick meeting house with the lone, white spire.
“All of a sudden, I saw smoke coming out,” Cindy Walsh, who was at home near the chapel when she heard shots, told WXYZ. “And then people were coming out.”
Exhaustive search for victims continues
Scores of emergency sirens reverberated along the hushed road Sunday morning as police officers rushed in less than 30 seconds after the first call to 911, Renye said.
As the suspect fled the church, two officers pursued him and “engaged in gunfire,” the police chief said.
Eight minutes after police arrived, the gunman was killed in the parking lot.
Responders’ attention turned to rescue.
The fire moved rapidly, engulfing the chapel and sending massive plumes of thick, black smoke across the sky.
When striking nurses at nearby Henry Ford Genesys Hospital heard about the Michigan church shooting, some left the picket line and ran to the nearby church to help first responders, Teamsters Local 332 President Dan Glass said.
“Human lives matter more than our labor dispute,” he said.
Firefighters battled the blaze and the thick clouds of smoke for hours as onlookers behind a police cordon stared in disbelief. Some survivors gathered at a reunification center, hugging each other in tears.
Authorities Sunday evening were still combing through debris and “working tirelessly to find additional bodies,” Renye said, unable to define how many people were still missing.
Up to seven people may have been unaccounted for as authorities concluded search efforts for the night late Sunday, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
Brian worried about his fellow worshippers: “We don’t know the status of them,” he said.
“It’s devastating to know I lost friends,” said Paula, who had joined the Grand Blanc church 38 years ago.
Chapel a ‘total loss’
Authorities are “trying to determine exactly when and where that fire ended up coming from and how it got started,” though they believe the suspect started the fire “deliberately,” Renye added.
Some victims were “near the fire and they were unable to get out of the church,” the police chief said.
Sanford used an accelerant, like gasoline, police believe, to light the church on fire, said James Deir, special agent in charge of the Detroit field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Evidence technicians went to process the scene after the fire was extinguished, and investigators said they found “some suspected explosive devices.”
“I’m shaken, I’m very shaken,” Walsh said. “I’ve seen a change in this world. There’s so much hate in this world. I just don’t understand it.”
The chapel, once bathed in sunlight and surrounded by greenery, is now unrecognizable. The building is a “total loss,” Renye said.
Debris piles have replaced pews; the welcoming meeting house has closed its doors; and the LDS church’s mounting grief has swelled.
And the tall white spire, which once towered over Grand Blanc worshippers as it reached toward heaven, is gone.
Source: CNN
Also read: FBI Investigates Minneapolis school shooting as hate crime
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