The community of Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, devastated by a deadly shooting on a Latter-day Saint congregation this week, has pulled together to help one another in the aftermath.
Neighborhood children handed out flowers and positive messages. Moms offered free hugs. And donations through multiple fundraising accounts popped up to cover medical costs for the injured or funeral expenses for the deceased.
One of those donation pages was set up to benefit an unexpected recipient: the family of Thomas Jacob Sanford, the suspect who died in the shooting, which killed four people and injured eight others.
Sanford, authorities said, drove a truck into the church meetinghouse during a worship service Sunday and opened fire with an assault-style weapon, shooting victims as young as 6. He was shot dead by police, and a fire then consumed the church.
The fund to benefit Sanford’s family has collected more than $200,000.
The idea to help the shooter’s family was spurred by the religious convictions of Utah-based writer Dave Butler, 53, also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Butler said he became concerned about who, if anyone, was supporting Sanford’s wife and child — “two more victims,” as he called them.
Butler, who is married with three children and knows members of the Grand Blanc congregation, thought of the long road to recovery that Sanford’s family now faced.
“It seemed very cruel,” he said, that support for people suffering from the attack “would overlook the other family that was left without a father.”
Sanford’s father, Thomas Sanford, said in a brief interview that the family was aware of and grateful for the page.
Butler said he had a long conversation Wednesday with Sanford’s sister, who will help facilitate the donation to the Sanford family.
“They are pretty moved that so many people have expressed love for them,” Butler said, adding that he and the sister both wept during the call. “I’m very grateful to have been part of this.”
And that was the outcome he had hoped for when he decided to begin the effort, he said.
Butler said he thought of his own faith, and how he had learned to “mourn with those who mourn,” turn the other cheek, and care for widows and orphans.
By Tuesday morning, the page was live. Within a minute, donations began rolling in. In just two hours, Butler raised $7,000. At the 12-hour mark, it reached almost $100,000.
Donations flowed from all corners of the country, in all amounts. Some gave as much as $5,000. Most gave $10, $25 or $50. Many of the more than 5,000 donors seemed to be Latter-day Saints, citing biblical verses:
“As I have loved you,” one comment read, “love one another.”
Britt Berrett, 62, a professor at church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo, said he was scrolling through Facebook when he saw the link, which was shared on a page he follows about thoughtful faith.
Berrett, a member of the church who said he had been overwhelmed by “the sadness and the horror” of the past few days, had already donated to all of the victims’ pages he had seen online. Until then, it had not struck him to also send money to Sanford’s family.
But once he saw the page for the Sanford family, it “just hit a chord,” he said. He said he couldn’t stop thinking about the tremendous emotion the family was probably feeling. He thought about how he had been taught by his church to forgive.
Berrett donated $1,000. The action — forgiveness — helped relieve some of his sorrow, he said. So he sent the link to his family group chat and encouraged all of his children to donate, too.
Other donors empathized with the future of Sanford’s wife as a single mother. Her child has a rare genetic disease, according to media reports.
There are a few verified GoFundMe pages for victims of the attack, each of which has raised tens of thousands of dollars, although none as much as Butler’s page. Several organizers of the victims’ pages did not respond or declined to comment.
Andrew Solomon, a psychologist who has written about and interviewed the families of mass shooters, said it was not uncommon for people to be “deeply sympathetic” for families of attackers. He said creating an online platform for public expressions of sympathy, though, is a relatively new idea.
He said the aspect of religion, where members often have strongly organized values, has most likely further spurred the messages of compassion and forgiveness.
“I find it quite encouraging in a time when there is so much cruelty, even toward people who have done nothing wrong,” Solomon said.
Butler, who said he expected to raise maybe $5,000, has spent the past 24 hours refreshing the donation page as more money and messages came in.
A few people online have called him evil. But Butler said he felt grateful for the kindness and generosity he has seen — even after reports that Sanford held a deep vendetta against the church and once referred to it as the Antichrist.
“This has gone way bigger than I thought,” he said. “I didn’t think it was possible.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.