A man crashed his vehicle through the front doors of a Mormon church in Michigan, opened fire with an assault rifle and set the church ablaze, killing at least four people and wounding at least eight others before being killed himself in a shootout with police, officials said.

Police said the perpetrator, identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, a former U.S. Marine from the nearby town of Burton, deliberately set fire to the church, which was engulfed in flames and billowing smoke.

Two of the shooting victims died and eight others were hospitalized, officials said. Several hours after the shooting, police reported finding at least two more bodies in the charred remains of the church, which had not yet been cleared and may contain other victims.

"There are some that are unaccounted for," Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye told a press conference.

Hundreds of people were in the church when Sanford drove into the building, Renye said.

The attacker was killed by police in the parking lot eight minutes after the first emergency call came in, Renye said, adding that investigators will search the shooter's home and phone records in search of a motive.

U.S. military records show Sanford was a U.S. Marine from 2004 to 2008 and an Iraq war veteran.

Coincidentally, another 40-year-old Marine veteran Nigel Max Edge, who served in Iraq, is a suspect in a North Carolina shooting that killed three people and wounded five others less than 14 hours before the Michigan incident.

'Epidemic of violence'

The Michigan rampage marked the 324th mass shooting in the U.S. in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks such incidents and describes a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.

President Donald Trump in a statement on Truth Social said that the shooting "appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America" and said the FBI was on the scene. Trump also said that the epidemic of violence in the U.S. must end immediately.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called Sunday's attack a "tragic act of violence."

"Places of worship are meant to be sanctuaries of peacemaking, prayer and connection. We pray for peace and healing for all involved," it wrote on X.

"My heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement posted to social media. "Violence anywhere especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable."

The Mormons, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, follow the teachings of Jesus but also the prophecies of Joseph Smith, a 19th century American.

The United States, where firearms are readily available, has a long history of gun violence. But tensions have soared in recent weeks after a series of high-profile attacks, including the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah and a deadly shooting at a federal immigration enforcement facility in Texas.

Sunday's attack also comes a month after a mass shooting at a Catholic church and school in Minnesota, in which two children were killed while attending Mass, and several others were severely wounded.

Political divisions have grown even deeper in the wake of the attacks, with Trump launching a campaign to target left-wing groups he accuses of being "domestic terrorists."

(With input from agencies)