LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The former Marine who opened fire at a Michigan church and set it on fire last month was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the FBI confirmed Friday.
While friends of the gunman in the deadly shooting have said he harbored hatred for what is widely known as the Mormon church, the FBI had previously declined to specify the motivation behind the attack that left four dead and the church burned, except to say it was a “targeted” act of violence.
The gunman, Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, was killed by law enforcement responding to the shooting.
“I am confirming that this is a targeted act of violence believed to be motivated by the shooter’s anti-religious beliefs against the Mormon religious community,” Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said in a prerecorded video message. The agency declined to share more information about what led to its conclusion.
Sanford drove his pickup truck into the side of a Latter-day Saint chapel in Grand Blanc Township, 60 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, on Sunday, Sept. 28, and began shooting at parishioners. Authorities have said he used gasoline as an accelerant and then set fire to the church.
Body camera footage released by Grand Blanc Township police shows an officer yelling, “Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop the gun now!” One of the officers tells another, “I’ve got your back, back here, man. Yeah, stay there. Shoot him!”
The FBI said Friday that nine people were injured in the attack. The previous official count had been eight.
“During our investigation, it was determined that another person was ‘injured’ during the critical Grand Blanc incident,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The agency declined to comment Friday on the nature of the additional injury.
The four people who died have been identified through family and friends as Craig Hayden, William “Pat” Howard, John Bond and Thelma Armstrong.
Lisa Louis, who was at the chapel when her father, Hayden, was shot to death, wrote in a letter that after looking the shooter in the eyes, she forgave him “with my heart.”
Earlier this month, top church leaders preached a message of love and forgiveness after the attack as they gathered for the faith’s biannual general conference in their home state of Utah. Its members responded by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in an online fundraiser for the gunman’s family.
The church said it beefed up its security protocols for the conference and, days later, for the funeral of its oldest president, who died a day before the Michigan shooting.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had no comment Friday.
Brandt Malone, a member of the faith who was attending services at a nearby church the morning of the shooting, said the FBI statement “confirmed some of our darkest fears: that this attack was motivated by hate.”
“This affects all believers of all religious traditions, and it hurts that there are those who are motivated by the darkest feelings,” he said.
Malone grew up attending events at the church where the attack occurred. He said local Latter-day Saints have been encouraged by the great love of the Grand Blanc Township community and other religious congregations.
Authorities have released little information about Sanford and the attack. People who knew him have said he began expressing anti-Mormon sentiments years ago after living in Utah, where he dated and broke up with a girlfriend who was a member of the faith. Sanford had moved to Utah after leaving the Marine Corps and told friends he had become addicted to methamphetamines.
An attorney serving as a spokesperson for Sanford’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.