White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claims the Michigan church shooter “hated” Mormons, referencing a conversation with the FBI. In an interview on Fox & Friends, she told viewers she had spoken with FBI Director Kash Patel and that agents are still sorting through how much planning went into the attack, whether a note exists, and what exactly pushed the suspect over the edge.
On Sunday, in Grand Blanc Township, a pickup truck crashed into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints building, the driver jumped out, opened fire on worshippers, and then set the place on fire. Police arrived within minutes, gunfire followed, and the suspect, 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, was killed in a shootout. Authorities said at least four people were dead and eight were wounded, and the FBI called it targeted violence while stopping short of a formal motive.
Leavitt said Patel assured her that agents were running multiple search warrants at homes tied to Sanford, and that his family was cooperating. FBI agents will comb through phones, laptops, notebooks, and anything that could explain why a neighborhood veteran would attack the church fifteen minutes away from his home by car. Officials are not rushing to label the attack as politically motivated amid heated debate about which side of the political aisle is responsible for political violence. However, Leavitt’s on-air line about hatred of Mormons is likely the direction the FBI is heading.
Images from June appeared online showing a Trump sign outside Sanford’s house in Burton, which sent social media into its usual spin cycle. Michigan uses open primaries and does not register voters by party, so that yard sign is not a voter file, but many other photos point to his MAGA support. Leavitt, who agreed with President Donald Trump’s framing of the attack as an attack on Christians, kept circling back to the same point: the FBI will answer the big questions when the evidence is processed.
Sanford served in the Marine Corps during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2007. Old clips show a proud family, a dad saying his son went willingly and hoped to come home to the same community. A hometown kid who once wore the uniform, a sanctuary ripped open by gunfire at innocent churchgoers, and sent families racing to hospitals to find out if their loved ones survived, and detectives canvassing the scene with evidence bags.
Kash Patel, for his part, is already under a microscope due to a string of public missteps, including speaking on social media about ongoing cases. Leavitt still leaned on his briefing, saying he told her the bureau is digging through Sanford’s life and that answers are coming.
FBI agents are doing the necessary work: pulling camera footage, building a timeline, and reading whatever the suspect left behind. Whatever his motive, prosecutors will say so when they can back it up. Until then, the quiet work continues, and a community that woke up for church now has a very different week ahead. However, with the political tension at an all-time high, some on the left probably won’t be receptive to the FBI’s conclusions if it is anything other than a political motive.
