The man who attacked a Mormon church in Michigan last year sought to "divert law enforcement resources" by phoning in threats to three other nearby houses of worship before unleashing his deadly assault on LDS members, police said Tuesday.
Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, was killed by responding police after killing four people in a shooting and fire on Sept. 28 at the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, on McCandlish Road and about 60 miles northwest of downtown Detroit.
That deadly attack unfolded at about 10:25 a.m., minutes after Sanford called 911 to report attacks at three other houses of worship — Catholic and Christian Reform churches and a Jewish temple, newly released law enforcement documents revealed.
All three of these other reported targets are short drives away from the Mormon church which Sanford actually attacked.
Sanford was motivated by "anti-religious beliefs against the Mormon religious community," the FBI has said.
Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye told NBC News on Tuesday that Sanford only had one target on his mind that day.
"We do not believe he had intent to carry out an attack here and it was a ploy to divert law enforcement resources," Renye said of the three other threats phoned in by Sanford.
GPS traced those 911 threats to within a mile of the LDS church, police said.
“The caller was a male who made bomb threats towards several local area churches and specifically described Mormon churches as being important," according to a Grand Blanc Township Police incident report.
"The male did not make any comments towards the specific church located at 4285 McCandlish Road. In the background audio of the 911 call, the possible sound of the exhaust of a vehicle can be heard while the male is speaking, as if the male was traveling in a vehicle while making the 911 bomb threat call."
Sanford, a Marine veteran, rammed his pickup truck through the LDS church, got out, opened fire on congregants with a high capacity rifle and then set the building on fire.
Two victims were killed by gunfire and two more perished in the fire.
Responding officers confronted Sanford in the parking lot where police fired seven rounds from a department-issue rifle, according to a use-of-force report.
