When an armed man attacked a Church of Jesus Christ from the Chapel of the Saints of recent days in Michigan on Sunday, killing four people and hurting another eight, David Butler, a member of the Mormon Church of Utah, said that his initial reaction was that it was “an evil act.”
But after listening to the suspect, Thomas Jacob Sanford, who was killed in a shooting with the police, left a wife and children, including a son with chronic diseases, Butler said he felt forced to help them.
On Tuesday, Butler created an account at the Crowdfunding Givendgo site, waiting, he said, raising $ 10,000 for the alleged family of the murderer. But until Thursday afternoon, more than 7,600 people had donated more than $ 300,000 to the bottom.
A van supposedly used by the suspect to ram the doors of a church of Jesus Christ of the Chapel of the last days in Grand Blanc, Michigan, in a deadly attack, on September 28, 2025, is outside the chapel while the police investigate the crime.
The Association press
When asked why he established the family account of a man who directed members of his faith, the 53 -year -old butler told ABC News in a telephone interview on Thursday: “It was actually quite simple.”
“Jesus tells us that we must do this. We should love our enemies, that we must cry with those who cry, that we must take care of the widow and the orphan,” said Butler, lawyer and author of fantasy and science fiction books.
After the shooting, other Crowdsourced donation campaigns were created on behalf of the victims who were killed and injured, raising tens of thousands of dollars.
The smoke and fire rise, after an incident in which a man crashed his vehicle through the front doors of a Michigan church and opened fire with an assault rifle and turned on the church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on September 28, 2025.
Heem Vaniawala through Reuters
“It was obvious that no one was doing anything to take care of Sanford’s family, and it was obvious to need it,” Butler said.
The researchers have said that Sanford, 40, a veteran sailor who served in the Iraq war, was supposedly uprooted on Sunday morning, ramming his truck through the door of the Sud chapel in the municipality of Grand Blanc, Michigan.
The church burned as emergency services responds to a shooting and a fire in the Church of Jesus Christ of the last days, on September 28, 2025 in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
After crashing against the chapel, Sanford, armed with what the authorities described as a “assault rifle”, unleashed a flood of shots in hundreds of faithful before setting fire to the chapel, burning it to the ground, according to the authorities.
While the researchers have not yet declared a reason for the attack, Friends of Sanford told ABC News that she was sheltering a mood against faith after going out with a Mormon woman in Utah several years ago and even considering becoming religion.
“Yes, some of my people were killed,” Butler said about the four people killed in the attack. “Yes, that was a horrible and evil act.”
Butler said he did not know any of the victims or anyone who was in the chapel during the attack.
Butler said that since the crowdfunding account began, he has received a recoil from people who, according to him, called him “evil” and “gender”, and told him that he should “raise money for real victims.”
“She did not send her husband in the morning, saying: ‘Good luck killing the Mormons,” Butler said about Sanford’s widow. “They are also victims. They lost their father. That will be an economic detriment for them for years. They already have a chronically ill son.”
Butler said that many of the people who donate to the Sanford family also seem to be saints of the last days, offering sentences for the Sanford family.
“I don’t know what … number we are now, but at least 7,500 people looked at him and said: ‘Yes, you were right. There are another set of victims here in which we had not thought, and I want to help them.'”
Butler said he has not yet talked to Sanford’s widow, but added: “I have spoken with someone else who is close to her and it was a very difficult conversation because they are suffering.”
