MI, Grand Blanc - Mass Shooting at Mormon Church, fire, 28 Sept 2025

[Knox]

A veterans plate

The boat shooter last night in NC was a Iraq War Veteran (Marines).

 

[Dotta]

This crime is horrific.

"• Authorities say a gunman rammed a vehicle through the front of the church during a large service, began shooting, and then intentionally set a fire that grew into a large blaze. Police believe they may find additional victims when it is safe to enter the building.

• Officers exchanged fire with the gunman and killed him, according to police. He has been identified as a 40-year-old Michigan man.

• Grand Blanc is a suburb of Flint, Michigan, and is located about an hour’s drive north of Detroit."

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/church-shooting-fire-michigan-09-28-25

 

[TMich6811]

Grand blanc township police department office giving brief update on fb

 

[FoxxTraxx]

That fire looks massive. I am curious what he used to start this fire.

Who took the shooter down or did he finish himself off?

If he was still unaccounted for is that possbly why the fire was able to grow becuase typically the fire department wants for LE to secure the scene or to confirm the threat is gone before they advance in.

Truly awful to think of people hiding from a shooter and then dying in a fire.

I cannot recall someone deliberately starting a massive fire like this in a building full of people, except on 9/11/2001. It takes some effort and planning to start such an inferno, IMO.

 

[Inthedetails]

I cannot recall someone deliberately starting a massive fire like this in a building full of people, except on 9/11/2001. It takes some effort and planning to start such an inferno, IMO.

I'm wondering if anything was set up in advance? I don't know anything about fires, but what would cause a fire to get so big while the building is full of people who could, potentially, stop it if they knew it was starting? The building looks completely destroyed.

Eventually we'll get a timeline.

jmopinion

 

[TMich6811]

I feel like it would only take a gas bomb. That sounds awful as an “only” but a container of gas on fire would explode fire in all directions and would be difficult to put out immediately with gunfire

 

[sasha17]

I realize this may be asking for logic in what may be an illogical person's brain, but what's the point of ramming a truck into a brick wall prior to the event? Why risk seriously harming yourself in a crash just prior to committing such a terrible attack? Did he think he was going to be able to drive through that brick wall Kool Aid style and then hop out and begin the attack from there? The whole thing is horrific.

 

[MassGuy]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1972378879059792340

 

[detective.moon]

i wonder if he had a history with the church? someone who had been excommunicated? trying to think of a motivation that would make sense - of course nothing really would

 

[Knox]

 

[DS2021]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1972378879059792340

Im assuming he was hoping they'd go off on impact from the crash

 

[Ontario Mom]

i wonder if he had a history with the church? someone who had been excommunicated? trying to think of a motivation that would make sense - of course nothing really would

Everything about this feels personal (the level of rage & violence), so my guess would be yes, a history with the LDS church.
Though as you say, it's hard to make sense of such senseless evil.

 

[Warwick1991]

I realize this may be asking for logic in what may be an illogical person's brain, but what's the point of ramming a truck into a brick wall prior to the event? Why risk seriously harming yourself in a crash just prior to committing such a terrible attack? Did he think he was going to be able to drive through that brick wall Kool Aid style and then hop out and begin the attack from there? The whole thing is horrific.

In many buildings built across the US, brick facades are just a single width of brick (aka wythe, roughly 4" deep) attached to other materials behind the facade, such as steel studs or wood studs. If this type of construction was used for the church, the truck could easily breach the wall, although falling brick could injure the driver. In more substantial, but costlier buildings, the brick would be attached to concrete masonry or would be constructed of interlocked brick over a foot thick.

No way to tell unless the wreckage of the building is clearly visible, so JMO

 

[TMich6811]

Driving through a wall feels like a structural attack, not only am I hurting your people, I’m breaking your foundation

 

[Inthedetails]

Captions under the photos in this news article indicate the house is on Atherton Road.

Members of the bomb squad and SWAT teams are outside the home of the man suspected in a mass shooting at a church in Grand Blanc Township....

Right now, Local 4 is outside the man’s house as members of the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad and SWAT teams prepare for a search.

Multiple IEDs were found in the suspected shooter’s vehicle, so the scene is being treated with the idea that there could be more explosives.

Bomb Squad robots are preparing to go inside the home, and a SWAT team vehicle with a battering ram in the front is likely going to be used to create an entry point for those robots.

Bomb squad robots, SWAT team -- what’s happening now at home of Grand Blanc mass shooting suspect

Members of the bomb squad and SWAT teams are outside the home of the man suspected in a mass shooting at a church in Grand Blanc Township.

www.clickondetroit.com

 

[Knox]

Everything about this feels personal (the level of rage & violence), so my guess would be yes, a history with the LDS church.
Though as you say, it's hard to make sense of such senseless evil.

Breaching a building with a vehicle was a common practice in the Iraq War, so if true he’s a vet - that makes sense within the context of his experience. Along with the IED’s found in his vehicle.

 

[DS2021]

Do we know how old the building is? Im looking in MI databases and they want money

 

[Inthedetails]

Driving through a wall feels like a structural attack, not only am I hurting your people, I’m breaking your foundation

He forgot that a church is not a building.

But, yes, I agree with your analysis of the attack. Good insight.

jmopinion

 

[DS2021]

Do we know how old the building is? Im looking in MI databases and they want money

earliest record i can find of this address operating as LDS is 1980

the address is listed as a residence in a newspaper from the 1950s

 

[DS2021]

Grand Blanc church shooting: 3 dead, multiple wounded at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Police said the suspect rammed a vehicle through the front doors of the church before opening fire on people worshipping.

www.fox2detroit.com

3 dead including shooter