() A man who survived a shooting at a church in Michigan on Sunday tells he believed he would die.
Paul Kirby appeared on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” to discuss how he and his family survived after Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old suspect from Burton, Mich., allegedly drove his vehicle into a Latter-day Saints church and then began firing at attendees.
The incident resulted in four fatalities and injured eight others at a church in Grand Blanc Township around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. Two individuals remain in critical condition, with hospital patients’ ages ranging from 6 to 78.
Sanford died after a shootout with law enforcement.
“We heard a loud boom and the back wall of the chapel buckled inward. The entire building shook. Several people stood up and began running out. Some of us exited, thinking a car had merely gone off the road,” Kirby explained.
Some in the congregation went to help the driver, believing he had accidentally run off the road and into the church.
“Upon seeing the gunman start shooting, I wasn’t sure how many others were out there before me, but some were shot, and he then aimed at me. I turned and dashed for the door,” Kirby recounted.
“I never imagined I would make it through the doors alive, as a bullet whizzed past me and struck the glass door on my left about a foot away,” he recounted.
Kirby’s wife and two sons, aged 14 and 12, were inside the chapel when the truck hit. They managed to evacuate successfully. Kirby emphasizes that now is not the time for America to be divided or focus on political disputes in the wake of this tragedy.
“Everybody wants to make things political … It doesn’t matter. It just divides us even more. We can’t have this happening. [We] can’t be dividing the nation over this. We’ve got to come together and change minds, bring people closer together.”
