He hit the gas like a battering ram and turned the Lord’s foyer into a scrapyard. A pickup punched through the front doors of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township around 10:25 a.m. Sunday. The driver climbed out with what police are calling an “assault-style” rifle, fired on the congregation, then lit the place with an accelerant—gasoline, investigators say—while hundreds scrambled for exits now beginning to be engulfed in flames.

Police were on scene within about 30 seconds of the 911 call and shot the suspect dead in the parking lot roughly eight minutes after the attack began. By evening, officials counted at least four dead and eight wounded, and warned the toll could rise as crews combed the burned interior.

A deranged gunman bursts into the Church o

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