{"id":174629,"date":"2025-09-29T08:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=174629"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:06:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T23:06:41","slug":"morman-church-shooter-is-reported-to-be-an-iraq-war-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=174629","title":{"rendered":"Morman church shooter is reported to be an Iraq War Veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thomas Jacob reportedly ran his truck into a Morman church in Michigan before firing on congregants. Jacob was shot dead by a couple of officers at the scene as the Morman chapel burned. Officials found improvised devices in the area. Jacob’s Facebook account has him as having served in Iraq from 2004 to 2009. Seven victims are in stable condition and two were reported dead as of the article’s posting date. One person is also reported to be in critical condition.<\/p>\n

From Daily Mail:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

At least two people have died and eight more are injured after a gunman set fire to a Mormon church in Michigan before shooting at congregants.<\/p>\n

Police said a 40-year-old man opened fire on hundreds of people, including children, who had gathered for a service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc about 10.25am on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The suspect was named as Iraq War veteran Thomas Jacob Sanford during a brief press conference held by police at 5pm.<\/p>\n

According to Facebook, Sanford has a wife and kids, and he served in Iraq from 2004 until 2009.<\/p>\n

The gunman, who authorities said was from nearby Burton, was shot dead by officers at the scene as flames engulfed the chapel.<\/p>\n

Seven victims remain in stable condition in hospital and at least one person is in critical condition.<\/p>\n

Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said the suspect rammed his vehicle through the front door of the building before opening fire with an assault rifle.<\/p>\n

As of Sunday afternoon three improvised devices were discovered, two senior U.S. law enforcement officials said, per NBC News.<\/p>\n

Renye told a press conference that police and FBI detectives are ‘still determining how the fire started’ but they believe it was ‘deliberately set by the suspect’.<\/p>\n

‘Ten gunshot victims have been transported to local hospitals at this time including one who has been confirmed deceased,’ Renye said. The death toll was later updated to two after a second victim died of a gunshot wound in hospital.<\/p>\n

‘We do believe we will find additional victims once the scene has been secured,’ Renye added, implying that police believe some congregants burned alive.<\/p>\n

‘The (church) service was active,’ Renye said. ‘There were more than a hundred people inside the church at the time.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additional Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parnaby, L., & Chain, B. (2025, September 28). Iraq war veteran Thomas Sanford identified as Michigan church shooter who ‘planted 3 bombs and killed 2’. Daily Mail<\/em>. Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Jacob reportedly ran his truck into a Morman church in Michigan before firing on congregants. … Morman church shooter is reported to be an Iraq War Veteran<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}