BREAKING: Mass Shooting, Fire at Church in Grand Blanc, MI, Shooter Down UPDATE

AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Oh, this is ghastly news.

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The local news affiliates are reporting the Mormon church in the city, which is located between Flint, MI and some fifty miles north of Detroit, suffered an attack during services around 11 a.m. this morning, with multiple casualties.

Multiple victims have been confirmed, a shooter is dead, and a church is on fire after an active shooter situation in Grand Blanc, police said.

The call came in before 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on McCandlish Road in Grand Blanc.

The shooter is down, and the church is ablaze.

...Police said around 11:25 a.m. that the shooter is “down” and there is no threat to the public.

The church is still on fire.

The Detroit Fox station has a little more information and a briefing is scheduled shortly.

...Police sources said that six to eight people were struck. Their conditions are currently unknown.

Video from the scene showed smoke billowing as emergency vehicles lined the street. Sources said the suspected shooter may have started the church on fire. Grand Blanc confirmed that as of 11:35 a.m., the church was on fire, and people should avoid the area.

I'll add more as it becomes available. This is the Genesee County Sheriff at the scene, updating a little while ago.

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Oh, Lord.

Such evil.

Bondyi is out with a statement, and Bongino says his guys and ATF are en route.

Genesee County Sheriff has confirmed shooter is 'down' and they are going to have a conference in about twenty minutes or so.

I have heard a report he drove his vehicle into the church but I haven't seen confirmation of that, so I'll hold off asserting it as a fact. There's a reported photo of a truck on the side of the building, but it looks sketchy af to me, and I'm not going to post it until the authorities say one way or the other.

While we wait, I just want to make a note of two other incidents that happened this weekend, which are very disturbing and not getting much or any airtime at all. The first is an entirely cowardly shooting in Southport, NC. A 'known to authorities' degenerate in his boat is accused of pulling up next to the dock of a popular local seafood restaurant and firing into the diners outside, killing three of them and wounding at least eight others, before speeding away.

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Fox News has been covering it.

And in the heart of Midtown Manhattan last night, a white Dodge Durango rammed an off-duty federal agent's car, and what they found in the vehicle was chilling.

...What unfolded in Midtown wasn’t just a crash — it was a full-blown nightmare. According to police sources and witness accounts, the suspect behind the wheel of a Dodge Durango rammed an off-duty federal agent’s car before being taken down.

Here’s what was recovered:

🚨A handgun

🚨An AR-15 style rifle

🚨A scope

🚨Armor-piercing ammo marked Level 3+

🚨And a license plate cover I personally saw that read: “FTP — Fxck the Police”

Cops worked the scene from 10 p.m. until nearly 4 a.m., pulling bag after bag after bag from the SUV.

And while I was filming, people tried to stop me, tried to hide me, tried to keep the truth from coming out. But I stayed.

This wasn’t just a car crash. This was a heavily armed suspect in the heart of Manhattan, and it looked like NYPD may have stopped something much bigger from happening.

As far as this incident, other than the eyewitness footage and account on @ViralNewsNYC I have been unable to find a single peep about anything further.

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Times are unsettled, my friends. Stay frosty.

More on those poor folks and that situation in MI, as I have it.

WELP: Still no press conference or any word on the condition of the victims. Nothing on the story about driving into the building, either, but the local Fox station did have an interview with a victim who'd either been shot at in HIS vehicle by the shooter or was part of an exchange of gunfire. Their live coverage is a bit garbled at the moment.

MORE:  Holy smokes - Fox News broadcasting now, and that church is GONE. Dang. They are also confirming the ramming story, but car or truck? Unknown yet and at which point of the structure.

Also discussing an IED (!) reports of which I've seen as being mentioned on the scanner, but also as the possible source of the fire that consumed the building.

Press Conference: Was the suspect known to police?

40-year-old man from [Beege adds: BURTON] MI - not releasing subject's name at this point.

Rammed the church with his CAR, exited, started firing, two officers responded and engaged in a firefight, killing the suspect.

He drove through the church door. And Grand Blanc Chief of Police William Renye believes there will be victims who were trapped in the fire. 

Ten gunshot victims now. One person dead in addition to shooter.

Oh, God - this is awful.

Local law enforcement took the suspect out.

The fire was started by the shooter.

President Trump:

Man:

...Renye said two responding officers met the suspect and engaged in gunfire, killing the suspect, who was armed with what appeared to be an assault rifle. Police said that a motive was still under investigation and did not immediately release the suspect's identity to the public.

Renye said there may be more victims as authorities begin to search the burned structure following the large fire.

"We do believe that there was people up there that were near that fire and they were unable to get out of the church," the police chief said. "So we do believe that we will find additional victims once we're able to search."

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So many in critical condition, too. Prayers for a swift recovery to all.

...A spokesperson for Henry Ford Health confirmed to Fox News that its hospital "is receiving patients from a shooting at a nearby church."

Renye said multiple victims were in critical condition.

Here's the police chief from earlier.

UPDATE:

Oh, God dang - two people have died, not including the gunman.

At least three people are dead, including the gunman, and eight others are being treated at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital following a mass shooting and fire at a Grand Blanc Township church on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 28.

More people are believed to have been trapped inside the burning Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel and may have perished in the flames, said Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye.

“We do believe that we will find some additional victims,” Renye said.

...Renye credited two trained officers — one from the township police department and one from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources — for stopping the shooter.

...Authorities are in the process of obtaining search warrants for the suspect’s home and plan to search electronic devices for clues about a motive, said Renye, who said he would host another news briefing about 5 p.m. to provide additional details.

Bomb squad at the shooter's house, and Jennifer has the interview with the churchgoer I referenced earlier.

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Beege UPDATE: First thing, I stand corrected about those sketchy pictures of the truck. They're saying it was the gunman's.

Additionally, if the Post has it right - and they say they've confirmed it - this is the murderer. 

The deranged madman who killed at least two people and injured nine others at a Michigan Latter-day Saints church, torching the building and opening fire on fleeing congregants and their families, has been identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, The Post can confirm.

Sanford, a US Marine veteran, according to his mom’s Facebook page, rammed his Chevy Silverado truck into the building before unleashing the assault on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, armed with a semi-automatic rifle.

The killings in Southport, NC, last night were also reportedly the work of a deranged former Marine and wounded war veteran, all of which is unconfirmed at the moment.

...The wild claims in the lawsuits echo those detailed in a book written by Nigel when he went by Sean DeBevoise, “Headshot: Betrayal of a Nation,” where he claims that he was shot four times, including in the head, by friendly fire over an international conspiracy.

He claims he served in the Marines Corps and was deployed to Haiti and then served two tours in Iraq when he found himself in the middle of the conspiracy ring.

The Marine said he was wounded in two separate IED attacks during a 2006 tour in Iraq, along with a bullet wound that left shrapnel lodged in his head.

North Carolina authorities identified Edge as a combat veteran allegedly suffering from PTSD.

The Marines did not respond to The Post’s request for comment and confirmation of Edge’s service.

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Madness.

Ed, David, John, and I love bringing you the best in conservative news and views, be it breaking or just so darn interesting, that we had to share.

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David Strom 12:00 PM | October 01, 2025
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