In one of six mass shootings in the United States over the weekend, five people, including the shooter, are dead following a targeted attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. Grand Blanc, home to just under 8,000 people, is located about 50 miles north of Detroit and just south of Flint.
The attacker, 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, is alleged to have driven his pickup truck into the church during a crowded opening service. After exiting his vehicle, police and eyewitnesses say he began shooting people with a semi-automatic or assault rifle. Shortly after the shooting began, federal investigators believe he used an accelerant, likely gasoline, to light the church on fire while hundreds of people remained inside. At least two of the people killed in Sunday’s attack died from smoke inhalation.
Police claim they arrived at the church and engaged in a gunfight with Sanford killing him roughly eight minutes after the attack began. Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye confirmed in a press conference Monday that Sanford had previously been arrested on charges of burglary and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Sanford leaves behind a 10-year-old son.
At the same press conference Monday, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents claimed they found improvised explosive devices in Sanford’s truck.
Dr. Michael Danick with Henry Ford Health confirmed the eight injured in the attack were between the ages of six and 78. Five were wounded by gunshots, and three suffered from smoke inhalation. On the gunshot wounds, Danick said one person suffered “multiple” injuries to the chest and abdomen and remains in critical condition. Another was shot in the abdomen but remains “mostly stable.” One of the gunshot victims died in the emergency department. A man suffered a gunshot to the leg, while a child who was shot in the arm was stabilized and transferred to a different facility.
Of those that suffered from smoke inhalation, one remains intubated while the other two have been discharged. Danick paid tribute to members of the church for saving many people, rushing back into the burning building to save those left behind or trapped.
Immediately after the shooting, President Donald Trump tried to insinuate that the assault on the church was conducted by an anti-Christian leftist. The fascist in the White House wrote, “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
However, as more information emerged about Sanford’s right-wing politics and his support of Trump, the tone quickly shifted among other Trump administration officials. Vice President JD Vance, after spending the last two weeks declaring the political violence was overwhelmingly committed by left-wing activists, simply tweeted, “Just an awful situation in Michigan. FBI is on the scene and the entire administration is monitoring things. Say a prayer for the victims and first responders.”
Sanford did not live in Grand Blanc but in neighboring Burton. A Google Maps image of his home shows a “Trump/Pence” election sign on the fence. Images posted on his social media and news reports confirm that Sanford was a former Marine, who deployed as a wrecker driver to Fallujah, Iraq in 2007 for seven months. After leaving the Marines in 2008, Sanford held multiple jobs, including as a truck driver.
Photos of Sanford indicate he supported Trump, Charlie Kirk and right-wing politics in general. In a 2019 photo he is seen wearing a shirt featuring Trump with a balled fist and the phrase “Make liberals cry again.” Photos of his pickup truck show he had two large US flags in the bed of the truck and an Iraq war veteran license plate.
In an interview with Mlive, Burton City Council candidate Kris Johns said he met Sanford while he was campaigning on September 22, just six days before the attack. After a few minutes of conversation, Johns said that Sanford turned the conversation to the Mormon Church, telling Johns, “the Mormons are the anti-Christ.” Johns said their conversation “was entirely based on religion” and that “he had an extreme issue with the church.”
Mark Grebner, a Democratic Party consultant who collects voter and petition data, said in an interview with Bridge Michigan that Sanford had voted in every election since 2016 and that Sanford had signed two petitions: one called “Unlock Michigan” sought to repeal limited pandemic mitigation measures instituted by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. The other petition, circulated by Right to Life of Michigan, sought to outlaw certain abortion procedures.
Speaking at a press conference Monday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she “spoke with President Trump yesterday, who wanted to share his condolences.” Whitmer said nothing about Trump’s ongoing coup and plans for military deployment in major US cities nor his role in stoking fascist political violence. Among the empty platitudes, she pleaded “that people lower the temperature of rhetoric.”
Ex-Marine attacks North Carolina waterfront bar from boat, 3 dead and 5 injured
The second mass shooting over the weekend occurred at a waterfront bar called the American Fish Company in Southport, North Carolina, on September 27. Three people were killed and eight were injured following what Southport Police Chief Todd Coring described as a “highly premeditated” attack carried out by Nigel Max Edge, 40.
The shooting took place as live music was entertaining patrons, many from out of state. Citing court documents, local news outlet WECT reported that Edge used a “short-barrel AR rifle with a suppressor, folding stock and scope to fire from his boat” into the bar. The attack occurred at roughly 9:30 p.m. The US Coast Guard claimed they observed someone matching Edge’s description loading a boat at a public ramp at around 10:00 p.m., at which point they detained him.
At a court appearance Monday, Edge was charged with three counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. He was ordered held in custody without bond until the next court hearing, set for October 13. Prosecutors have indicated they will seek the death penalty.
In a press conference, Oak Island Police Chief Charlie Morris said the department was “familiar with” Edge, and that he had been a resident of Oak Island “for several years.”
Like Sanford, Edge is former US Marine who deployed to Iraq in the mid-2000s. A US military spokesperson confirmed Edge was in the Marines from 2003 through 2009 and that he deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
In his last deployment Edge, who previously went by the name Sean DeBevoise, was wounded multiple times. In what he said was “friendly fire,” Edge was shot in the head, hip, ankle and shoulder and was wheelchair-bound for several years.
Edge was awarded numerous service medals, including a Combat Action ribbon, a Purple Heart and an Iraq Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD.
Over the last several years he has filed several lawsuits accusing various organizations and people of trying to kill him. After previously escorting country singer Kellie Pickler to the CMT Music Awards in 2012, in Nashville, Edge filed a lawsuit several years later accusing the singer of trying to “poison” him that night, calling it an “attempted murder (poisoning) of straight man.” A suit filed this past May by Edge accused the Generations Church of orchestrating a “civil conspiracy” against him in league with the “LGBTQ community” and “white supremacist pedophiles” to kill him because he’s a “straight man.”
Police have described Edge’s attack as a “lone wolf” event because he allegedly acted on his own. This characterization is deliberately misleading. The Southport shooting, like the massacre in Grand Blanc, is not a random “one-off” but part of a broader social pathology produced by American capitalism and imperialism.
The violence that US imperialism has inflicted in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Gaza and Libya—shattering entire societies in wars for markets and resources—inevitably reverberates back within the United States. The brutalization of populations abroad finds expression in the domestic sphere, above all, in the deadly toll exacted by the militarization of American life and the psychological wreckage among US veterans.