IAN LEE:
00:00:44
The FBI says it's still investigating potential motives, but authorities confirmed the Marine veteran and suspect, 40-year-old Thomas Sanford of Burton, Michigan, had a prior arrest record. How did you know Thomas Sanford? I'm running for city council in Burton, and I just-- his house was a dot on the map.
IAN LEE:
00:01:04
Kris Johns said he was canvassing door to door last Monday in Burton when he pulled into Sanford's driveway and struck up what he said was at first a polite conversation. But Johns says Sanford soon began quizzing him on the Latter Day Saints Church and its practices. Each question was, what do you know about Mormons? And then it became the history of the Mormon church. And ultimately, really one of the few statements that we had when we left was that Mormons were the anti-Christ. That's really what I took away from that.
IAN LEE:
00:01:33
Six days after that conversation, Sanford drove his truck into the side of the church in neighboring Grand Blanc, opened fire with an assault rifle, and set the building ablaze, killing four people. He died in an exchange of gunfire with police. Christopher Swanson, the local sheriff, says the raging inferno made the situation much more complicated. You're teaching people to go barricade in an active shooter, but when there's a fire, you don't want to barricade. And you had firefighters that had been on the job for a year and their whole life, hands and knees, going room to room, trying to rescue people. Grand Blanc Township's police chief said yesterday eight people remain hospitalized for gunshot wounds sustained during the incident. He said all are expected to recover. Meanwhile, two people were treated for smoke inhalation.
TONY DOKOUPIL:
00:02:24
Ian, thank you very much.
