Thomas Jacob Sanford, the suspect in Sunday morning’s mass taking pictures at a Michigan church, was an Iraq War veteran and outdoorsman, based on army data and social media posts.
Police say Sanford, 40, of Burton, Michigan, killed two and injured a minimum of eight others whereas opening hearth on congregants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township. Sanford, who additionally allegedly set hearth to the church, was killed in an alternate of gunfire with police, authorities mentioned.
Authorities have supplied no motive for the attack.
A Marine Corps spokesperson informed NCS that Sanford served as a sergeant and obtained a number of medals for his service, which lasted from 2004 to 2008. He was deployed throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom for a number of months beginning in the summertime of 2007.
Sanford graduated from Goodrich High School in 2004 and was acknowledged amongst different veteran alumni, based on an archived web page from the varsity’s web site. A neighborhood information profile of Sanford from 2007 mentioned he was deployed with the US Marine Corps to Japan earlier than getting ready to move for service in Iraq.
Social media accounts linked to Sanford’s household present he was married with a minimum of one little one, a younger son. According to a GoFundMe web page from 2015, the household was in want of donations to assist pay for the medical care of Sanford’s son, who was born with a uncommon genetic dysfunction.
The new child was identified with a situation known as congenital hyperinsulinism, which required a prolonged hospital keep and a number of other surgical procedures to take away parts of the pancreas, based on a household Facebook web page documenting the troublesome journey.
The little one’s medical situation took a monetary toll on the household, with one native information article reporting Sanford took depart from his work as a truck driver for Coca-Cola to be along with his son.
“Don’t ever take having healthy kids for granted,” Sanford is quoted as saying in one other article. “We are proud of our child. I spent four years in the Marine Corps and was in Iraq and this is still the most unique thing to deal with.”
Other posts on Sanford’s mom’s Facebook web page present that Sanford was a hunter, posing with deer and different recreation.