Four killed, carnage prevented as cops respond to mass shooting of church members in 30 seconds

Quick response from two policemen saved what could have been a massacre at a church in Michigan, United States, on Sunday when a man, Thomas Sanford, opened fire on worshippers.

Sanford rammed his truck into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, USA., on Sunday, September 28, 2025, killing four people.

Someone called the emergency number, 911, after which two cops nearest to the scene were dispatched to contain the crisis.

Authorities said that a Department of Natural Resources officer and a local township cop raced to the scene in 30 seconds.

They were able to identify the threat shortly afterwards and neutralised him before he could wreak more havoc.

The assailant was later identified as Iraq War veteran Thomas Sanford, a married man with a young son.

Sanford’s Chevy Silverado truck had two large American flags behind the cab and a set of deer antlers attached to the bumper.

His motives have yet to be established. Authorities believed he acted alone.

He went to the church fully prepared, as he set the building on fire before he was killed.

His mother revealed that he served in Iraq from 2004 to 2008.

According to The Post, authorities found improvised explosive devices on the church premises.

There were hundreds of worshippers inside the church. Sanford stormed the premises and came out of his truck, firing at worshippers who came out of the church.

Journalists have unearthed a dormant GoFundMe page from 2015, which the late Sanford and his wife used to raise more than $3,000 for their now-10-year-old son.

The son was born with congenital hyperinsulinism, or CHI, a genetic condition which makes the pancreas release too much insulin.

Quoting an unnamed witness, Fox 2 Detroit reported that the attack started at about just after the congregational hymn.

Many of the worshippers said they heard a loud crash outside and thought someone had mistakenly crashed his car into the church building.

One of them, Paul Kirby, 38, ran outside to render assistance to the man in the vehicle. He, however, stopped in his tracks when he saw the man stepping out of his car and firing at worshippers.

“He started shooting at me,” Kirby said, saying a bullet whizzed through a nearby glass door, clipping his leg with a piece of shrapnel.

Kirby ran inside the church to fetch his wife and two sons before they fled through the back of the church.

He said they carried as many as his car could take to escape from the church.

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