Michigan church shooter said ‘Mormons are the anti-Christ' week before deadly attack

What Michigan church shooter told city council candidate

Prior to carrying out a deadly attack on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 40-year-old gunman expressed animosity toward the faith, a candidate for city council in Burton told FOX 2 News.

(FOX 2) - Less than a week before a gunman carried out a deadly shooting at a church in Genesee County, the shooter had expressed what one man is calling "true religious animosity."

Burton resident Kris Johns had spoken with the 40-year-old man while campaigning for city council in the small community.

What they're saying:

Johns was going door-to-door in September, campaigning for a seat on the city council in Burton when he met a man identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford.

Johns told FOX 2 that Sandford said he was a veteran, having served as a marine, and that he had toured in Iraq.

"He did mention that he had experienced drug addiction issues. He then moved to Utah to plow snow and then he had met a woman," he said. "And then he gets into the Mormon Bible…"

According to Johns, the shooter said he had a strong disagreement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"And that ultimately, we're having a banter and I remember taking away and I will never forget this, he (said) ‘Mormons are the anti-Christ.'

"This was true religious animosity towards the LDS church. I mean there was no discussion about political pieces, no current events," he added.

The backstory:

Four people died and eight others were injured after a gunman rammed his pickup truck through the front doors of the LDS church in Grand Blanc Sunday morning.

The shooter had previously set fire to the building before carrying out his attack, police said. Law enforcement also found four IEDs in his pickup truck, which remains parked outside the burned-out building.

A day after the attack, everyone who had been inside the building was accounted for.