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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed on Monday that the gunman who killed four people and hurt eight others at a Michigan church on Sunday “hated” Mormons.
The suspect was named Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old former Marine from Burton, Michigan.
When co-host Lawrence Jones asked Leavitt on Fox & Friends on Monday what the motive was, she didn’t say if there was a personal connection to that church community.
She did say that FBI Director Kash Patel told her that the attacker targeted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of their faith.
“From what I understand based on my conversation with the FBI director, all they know right now is that this was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith,” Leavitt said.
“They are trying to understand more about this, how premeditated it was, how much planning went into it, whether he left a note, all of those questions are yet to be answered but certainly will be answered by the FBI,” the press secretary added.
This incident occurred one day after a gunman opened fire inside a Latter-day Saints church in Michigan, killing at least four people and injuring eight others, including children, before setting the building ablaze.
Officials confirmed that the gunman had fatally shot two of the victims and discovered two others inside the burned structure.
Investigators issued a warning, predicting an increase in the death toll due to the unaccounted-for status of several individuals and the possibility of finding additional victims
