Shocking footage captured by a body camera showed the events when Michigan police shot and killed Thomas Jacob Sanford after he fired shots and set fire to a Mormon church.

Officials reported that the 40-year-old crashed his pickup truck into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township just as people were coming in on September 28.

Sanford then started shooting at congregants and set the church on fire, killing four people and injuring eight others.

When Sanford then exited the building, he was confronted by officers as another raced to the scene, the newly-released body camera footage shows.

While an officer was moving toward the northwest area of the church’s parking lot, a voice was heard urging ‘Shoot him,’ followed by an officer commanding Sanford to ‘Drop the gun now.’

Within one minute, the officer who ran to the scene could be seen firing eight shots, leaving Sanford motionless on the ground.

Michigan State Police have begun investigating this officer-involved shooting, and the officers involved, whose identities have not been revealed, are currently on paid leave.

‘It’s a hard video to watch. I know that,’ Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said at a news conference on Friday, according to 10 News.

‘We’re releasing this footage to help with the healing process,’ an official said, mentioning the overwhelming number of public record requests the police received related to the event.

The short 47-second footage begins with an officer approaching the Mormon church when a barrage of gunshots ring out just before 10.30am.

Upon hearing the gunshots, the officer sprinted towards the sound, informing dispatchers: ‘Shots fired… south end of the building, south end of the building.’

Apparently turning his attention toward another officer at the scene, the cop vows, ‘I’ve got your back back there man’ and tells someone in the parking lot to ‘stay there.’

Just moments later, as the cop continues to sprint to where the gunman is being held, two more shots could be heard. 

Meanwhile, the officer whose body camera is recording the entire incident could be seen telling a man in a suit wielding a gun to ‘get back.’

He then turns to reveal another officer confronting the gunman and yells out ‘drop the gun now! Drop it!’ before firing his weapon.

Less than 10 seconds later, the other officer could be heard confirming: ‘He’s down.’ 

At the end of the video, a dog could be seen running into the video’s frame.

Police now say the dog belonged to Sanford and has since been returned to his family.

Chief Renye also noted that the video proves police acted quickly to the reports of the shooting.

The first 911 call had come in at around 10.25am from a caller describing being shot in the stomach, and Renye said the first officer on the scene – from the Department of Natural Resources – arrived in just under two minutes.

A Grand Blanc Township officer arrived about a minute later, and Renye said on Friday that the entire incident ended in just three minutes and 43 seconds, the Detroit Free Press reports. 

The FBI is now investigating Sanford’s attack as an act of ‘targeted’ violence, as those who knew the former Marine describe how he held a fiery grudge against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints following a breakup with a Mormon girlfriend.

Peter Tersigni, who has known Sanford since preschool and called him his best friend, told The New York Times that his four-year stint in the Marine Corps – which included time served in Iraq – changed Sanford from a former class clown into a more serious person.

His time living in Utah, combined with heavy methamphetamine use, changed his best friend even further, Tersigni and others said.

Sandra Winter, 56, who rented a room to Sanford when he lived in Utah, also told how he felt pressured to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by his girlfriend.

‘He wasn’t so sure that he wanted to be a member of the church, but he really wanted to be with this woman,’ she said.

It is unclear why Sanford broke up with the Mormon woman, but by the time he returned to Michigan ‘mentally he was in rough shape,’ Peter said. 

‘He got this whole fascination with Mormons and “they are the Antichrist and they are going to take over the world,”‘ Peter’s twin brother, Francis, explained.

The topic had become such an obsession for Sanford, that he even brought it up at Peter’s wedding, the brothers said.

‘All he could talk about was Mormons,’ Peter recounted. ‘I was like, “Dude, nobody wants to hear about this stuff.”‘ 

But Sanford was not afraid to share his hatred, even telling a local politician canvassing his neighborhood that Mormons are the ‘Antichrist.’

Kris Johns, a resident running for city council, shared how Sanford asked him about the Mormon bible, the role Jesus plays in the religion, the history of the LDS church, and more, Johns said. 

‘I just didn’t know what the next question was going to be,’ he added. 

‘There’s certain things you don’t forget. This is not a forgettable guy.

‘It was very much standard anti-LDS talking points that you would find on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook,’ Johns said of Sanford.

One family friend has since told Journalist Ty Steele that Sanford had been battling PTSD.

‘It’s hard to feel sad for someone who did something so terrible, and I still feel sad. I had heard through family events that he had had PTSD,’ she said.

‘He would make comments occasionally and it was something that was kind of talked about. It wasn’t talked about in depth… so I don’t know the depth of his issues.’

Pictures taken from social media accounts of Sanford’s wife and loved ones reveal they were a conservative, Christian family who were dealing with the stress of their son’s devastating Congenital Hyperinsulinism diagnosis.

As the town now deals with the tragic aftermath, Town Supervisor Scott Bennett encouraged anyone who would like to help the victims to donate to the Victim Compassion Fund – which guarantees that 100 percent of the funding will go to the victims.

He also urged community members to gather on October 7 for a ‘community reflection’ to support the people affected by the attack. 

‘We will never forget this incident, but I promise that we will not let this define Grand Blanc,’ Police Chief Reyne added.

‘We will strive and we will be better together.’