A person has been killed and several others injured after a gunman launched a violent attack on a Mormon church in Michigan, crashing his car into the building before opening fire on worshippers and setting the property ablaze.
The incident unfolded at around 11am local time on Sunday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, a community situated about 50 miles north of Detroit. Police later confirmed that the suspect, a 40-year-old man from Burton, used an assault rifle as he targeted the congregation, which had gathered in large numbers for the weekly service. Witnesses said panic broke out as the man forced his way inside, firing multiple rounds and then deliberately starting a fire that quickly engulfed the building.
Grand Blanc Township Police chief Matthew Renye told reporters that officers were still assessing the scene but warned that more victims could yet be discovered within the wreckage of the church. Genesee County sheriff Christopher Swanson described the fire as intense and confirmed that the entire structure had been burning before emergency services managed to contain the blaze. Fortunately, those who had been inside the church were evacuated in time, but the full extent of injuries is still being determined.
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Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a statement expressing her heartbreak at the events, calling the assault “unacceptable” and emphasising the horror of violence in a place intended for prayer and refuge. She thanked the first responders who rushed to the scene and worked quickly to save lives.
Federal agencies have joined the investigation. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed their involvement, with attorney general Pam Bondi stating that resources were being mobilised to assist local law enforcement. In Washington, president Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the suspect was dead but that there remained much to learn about the attack. He characterised the shooting as yet another targeted assault on Christians in America, calling for prayers for the victims and demanding urgent action to end what he called an “epidemic of violence” in the country.
In response to the attack, the New York Police Department announced that it would place officers at religious institutions across the city, describing the measure as one of caution rather than a response to any specific threat. The sense of unease was heightened by the timing of the incident, which occurred just a day after Russell M Nelson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its longest-serving leader, died at the age of 101.
The tragedy in Michigan came during a weekend marked by bloodshed elsewhere in the United States. Late on Saturday in North Carolina, a gunman fired from a boat into a crowd at a bar, leaving three people dead and several more wounded. In Texas, two people were killed and seven injured in a shooting at a casino, while in New Orleans a woman lost her life on Bourbon Street after another burst of gunfire.
For residents of Grand Blanc, however, the focus remains on the devastation to their own community. The Mormon church was left in ruins, its congregation traumatised, and its leaders urging unity in the face of violence. As investigators search for answers, the attack has underscored once again the vulnerability of public and religious spaces in a country still struggling to curb the relentless toll of gun violence.
