Shooting at Michigan Mormon Church Leaves One Dead, Nine Injured

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At least one victim is dead and nine others are injured after a shooting and a fire at a Mormon church in Michigan, authorities said.

Although the local fire department put out the flames, officials say more victims may be found at the site.

The police chief of Grand Blanc Township, William Renye, said a 40-year-old male suspect drove a vehicle through the front door of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc on Sunday morning, got out and began firing an assault rifle at hundreds of church attendees. Local police arrived and killed the suspect, Renye told reporters on Sunday afternoon.

“There is NO threat to the public at this time,” police said on Facebook earlier on Sunday. Renye echoed the statement, saying they believe it was only one suspect.

Renye also said police suspected that the fire was “deliberately set” by the gunman, who is from the nearby city of Burton. No motive for the attack has yet been determined.

Investigators did not provide the names of the victims. Officials said they had set up a pair of local reunification sites.

Federal agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are also responding to the scene, according to the attorney general, Pam Bondi. Renye said the FBI will be devoting 100 agents to the area to help conduct the investigation.

Grand Blanc, a community of roughly 8,000 people, is just outside Flint and about 50 miles north of Detroit. Genesee county sheriff Chris Swanson said the area had been evacuated and local and federal authorities were there. “The entire church is on fire,” Swanson said, adding that authorities would release more details later.

Mormons on Sunday happened to be mourning the death of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ oldest-ever president, Russell Nelson, the previous night. Nelson was 101 when he died at his home in Salt Lake City.

The Grand Blanc shooting happened during a particularly violent weekend in the US. There had been multiple mass shootings – cases in which four or more people are shot or killed – reported in the US in public places heading into Sunday morning.

Three people were killed and at least eight others wounded late on Saturday when someone opened fire from a boat into a crowd gathered at a waterfront bar in a coastal town in North Carolina, authorities said.

Elsewhere, in south Texas, seven were shot – two of whom were killed – in a shooting at a casino early Sunday. And in New Orleans, one woman was killed and three other people were wounded in a shooting on the city’s popular Bourbon Street, also early on Sunday.

The North Carolina shooting erupted about 9.30pm near a popular stretch of bars and restaurants on Southport’s waterfront, a historic port town about 30 miles (48km) south of Wilmington. Investigators said the assailant, identified by Southport city officials as Nigel Edge of nearby Oak Island, piloted a small boat close to shore, stopped briefly and fired into the crowd before speeding away.

Roughly half an hour later, a US coast guard crew spotted a person matching the suspect’s description pulling a boat from the water at a public ramp on nearby Oak Island. The person was detained and turned over to Southport police for questioning, officials said.

After his arrest, Edge faces three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to Southport city spokeswoman ChyAnn Ketchum.

Investigators from multiple agencies – including the state bureau of investigation and the coast guard – remained on the water and at the scene on Sunday collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses.

At a news conference Sunday, police said the shooting was “highly premeditated” and that the scene was “targeted,” local police chief Todd Coring said.

Officials did not immediately release the names of those killed or provide information on the conditions of those who were wounded.

In Texas, about 12.15am on Sunday, two people died and five more were injured in a shooting at the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle casino in Eagle Pass, near the US-Mexico border, the local news outlet KSAT reported.

Law enforcement early on Sunday was searching for a suspect in the casino shooting, the local county government’s top official, Ramsey English Cantú, said to KSAT. Authorities did not immediately discuss a possible motive in that shooting.

In a separate statement on Facebook, English Cantú said: “More than anything, I ask that we come together to pray for the families of the two victims whose lives were tragically lost in this heinous act.”

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, on the first block of Bourbon Street, the well-known entertainment thoroughfare, a triple shooting killed one woman, wounded two other women and injured a man, local police said. According to Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana, the slain woman was pronounced dead at the scene while the other three who were wounded were taken a hospital.

New Orleans police did not immediately publicly identify a suspect or discuss a possible motive.

As of Sunday, the 271st day of 2025, there had been more than 320 mass shootings in the US, according to the non-partisan Gun Violence Archive.

Perennially high rates of mass shootings in the US have prompted many to call on federal lawmakers to implement more substantial gun control. But Congress has largely been unable or unwilling to heed those pleas.

The Guardian

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