Officials released body-camera footage on Friday showing law enforcement officers responding to the attack on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Michigan over the weekend that left four people dead and at least eight wounded.
In the 47-second clip that officials shared at a news conference, an officer can be seen running toward the building in Grand Blanc Township on Sunday morning and firing multiple shots outside.
“Drop the gun now!” the officer with the body camera yells on the video. “Drop it!” He can then be heard firing eight shots.
The authorities say that the shooter died in an exchange of gunfire with the responding officers.
“This is what law enforcement is trained to do,” Chief William Renye of the Grand Blanc Township Police Department said at the news conference on Friday. “This is how law enforcement should respond to these incidents.”
The attacker crashed a four-door pickup displaying two American flags into the church building during morning services last Sunday, officials said. He shot at congregants with an assault-style weapon, then set the church on fire.
Four people inside the church died, two of gunshot wounds, officials said, and at least eight others were wounded, the youngest of whom was 6. Neither local officials nor the church have released the names of the victims.
Chief Renye on Friday also did not provide the names of the officers who responded to the attack in the suburban community near Flint, Mich. State police were conducting an investigation, he said.
Friends and acquaintances of the attacker, whom the authorities have identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, said that he had developed a hatred for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after a romantic relationship with a religious woman who belonged to the church ended painfully several years ago, when he lived in Utah.
Mr. Sanford, 40, called Mormons “the Antichrist” and seemed to express his contempt to anyone who would listen, several people who knew him told The New York Times.
Records show that the gunman graduated from a high school near the church in 2004. He served in the Marine Corps from 2004 to 2008 and was deployed to Iraq from 2007 to 2008. He achieved the rank of sergeant in the Marines, military records show.
At the news conference on Friday, Chief Renye released new details about the timing of the officers’ response to the attack on the church.
He said that Genesee County dispatchers received their first 911 call around 10:25 a.m., and that it took less than two minutes for a Michigan conservation officer to arrive at the church. About a minute later, a Grand Blanc Township officer arrived.
The shooting ended less than four minutes after the first 911 call, Chief Renye said.
Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics across the country.
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