Thomas Jacob Sanford, the suspect in Sunday morning’s mass shooting at a Michigan church, was an Iraq War veteran and outdoorsman, in response to navy data and social media posts.
Police say Sanford, 40, of Burton, Michigan, rammed his pickup truck into the entrance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc earlier than shooting at congregants with an assault rifle and, in some unspecified time in the future, setting the constructing on hearth. At least 4 folks have been killed and eight injured. Sanford died throughout an change of gunfire with police, authorities mentioned.
Authorities have supplied no motive for the assault.
A Marine Corps spokesperson advised NCS 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 summer time of 2007.
Sanford graduated from Goodrich High School in 2004 and was acknowledged amongst different veteran alumni, in response to an archived web page from the faculty’s web site. A neighborhood information profile of Sanford from 2007 mentioned he was deployed with the US Marine Corp to Japan earlier than getting ready to move for service in Iraq.
Social media accounts linked to Sanford’s household present that he was married with no less than 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 child was recognized 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, in response to a household Facebook web page documenting the tough journey.
The little one’s medical situation took a monetary toll on the household, with one native information article reporting that Sanford took go away from his work as a truck driver for Coca Cola to be together 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.