Grand Blanc Township police said the shooter is “down.” The “entire church is on fire,” a Michigan county sheriff said.
(Google Maps) A Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Grand Blanc, Michigan, in 2025.
There are “multiple victims” after a gunman attacked a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Michigan on Sunday morning, law enforcement officials said, and the “entire” Grand Blanc church was also on fire.
“There’s has been an active shooter at the church of Latter-day Saints on McCandlish Rd. There are multiple victims and the shooter is down,” the Grand Blanc Township Police Department posted to social media Sunday. “There is NO threat to the public at this time.”
Two people, including the shooter, are dead, Fox 2 Detroit reported, according to police. Nine others have been hospitalized.
“The entire church is on fire,” Genessee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson said in a video message posted to social media Sunday.
Swanson also said that “the shooter is down” and “we do have multiple victims.” He added that “the scene is no longer a threat at this point.”
Federal, state and local authorities were all responding to the shooting, the sheriff added.
FBI Director Kash Patel said federal agents were on the scene.
“Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act,” Patel added in a post to social media. “Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy.”
The church is located about 12 miles south of Flint, Michigan. Grand Blanc’s population was 7,784 as of the 2020 US Census.
A spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not immediately respond to a request for more details on the shooting Sunday morning.
“My heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “Violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable.”
Tony Deck, a Grand Blanc resident who lives near the church, told the Detroit Free Press he drove to church when he heard sirens, at around 10:15 a.m., to see if he could help.
“There was a silver Chevy Silverado that had been driven into the side of the church — not even through the doors,“ Deck said. ”… It’s solid brick.”
Michigan is home to nearly 50,000 Latter-day Saints, according to church membership data, and about 100 congregations, along with a temple in Detroit and construction of another temple in Grand Rapids.
News of the shooting comes the morning after the death of President Russell M. Nelson, the 101-year-old leader of the global faith of 17.5 million members.
This story is breaking and will be updated.