On the menu today: Another horrific act of violence Sunday, this time targeting a Mormon Church. Elsewhere, the superintendent of Des Moines public schools is getting an education about U.S. immigration law, and the parents who send their kids to that city’s public schools are learning that the city’s board of education’s background checks aren’t nearly as thorough as they believed. Finally, just weeks after angrily insisting he would never withdraw from the New York City mayor’s race, Eric Adams withdraws from the New York City mayor’s race. Plus, some upcoming travel. Read on.
The Horror in Michigan
Sunday brought a dreadful reminder that sometimes in America, somebody decides to commit a terrible act of mass violence for a reason other than politics, or at least with no easily discernible motive at all. When a gunman targets the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Mich., Occam’s Razor would suggest that the shooter hated Mormons, but as of this writing, investigators have no idea why the shooter hated Mormons.
From the local newspaper, the Grand Blanc View:
Police have said that Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, of Burton, crashed his pickup truck into the front of the church just before 10:30 a.m.
Sanford, a 2003 graduate of Goodrich High School and a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran, then exited the vehicle and allegedly opened fire.
Minutes later, police shot and killed Sanford, who was armed with an assault rifle, in the back parking lot of the church.
It is unknown how many people were in the church at the time, but authorities have confirmed many were children. . . .
Ten congregants were rushed to area hospitals with gunshot wounds, Renye said. One person was pronounced deceased shortly thereafter, another died a few hours later. A third victim remained in critical condition late Sunday while the rest were in stable condition, Renye said.
Investigators were still working to pinpoint the cause of the fire that destroyed the church as multiple bomb threats at various other churches throughout the region were being called in to 911, and some people were still searching for missing family members. [Grand Blanc Township Police Chief Bill] Renye said it is unclear how many people were still unaccounted for Sunday night.
Did the shooter call in other multiple bomb threats before his rampage? Did he have some accomplice who helped him do this? Or did the news coverage of the fire at the church spur every yahoo in the area to start calling in bomb threats to churches, knowing authorities would have to take the threats seriously? Is this the kind of country we are, where someone commits an act of church arson, and some other hateful idiots want to jump in and disrupt as many other religious services as possible on a Sunday?
NBC News quoted James Deir, special agent in charge of the Detroit Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, who said the assailant appears to have used an accelerant to start a fire.
NBC News offered a few more details about the shooter’s life:
Sanford joined the Marine Corps in 2004, according to Marine records, and held the titles of organizational automotive mechanic and vehicle recovery operator. . . .
Sanford achieved the rank of sergeant and had his last duty assignment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before he left the Marines in June 2008, according to the records.
He was awarded the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal, the records show. . . .
The image was uploaded to “Brantlee’s Journey,” a page that provides updates on Sanford’s son Brantlee and his battle with congenital hyperinsulinism, a rare condition where the insulin cells of the pancreas create too much insulin. . . .
This most recent attacker may not have been driven by politics, but he undoubtedly was driven by hate; it is unlikely he selected his target at random and bringing the accelerant indicates premeditation and malice aforethought.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a big deal, as is the fatal shooting at the Dallas facility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the fatal shooting at the Nashua country club, and the shots fired at the Sacramento television station.
You can support the Second Amendment and believe that every law-abiding U.S. citizen of sound mind has a right to the private ownership of firearms and simultaneously believe that a bunch of citizens who are not of sound mind are getting their hands on firearms and creating a threat to the rest of us. Michigan and California, along with 19 other states and the District of Columbia, have “red flag” laws, which are civil court orders that temporarily prohibits individuals who pose a danger to themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms. Ongoing violence is demonstrating that a flaw in the system of “red flag” laws is that apparently no one around these past shooters paid close enough attention to realize what a threat they were becoming or cared enough to get the ball rolling on the process to remove their access to firearms.
Speaking of violating the law . . .
Iowa Public Schools, Learning Some Hard Lessons
If you’re an Iowa parent with a child in that city’s public school system, the past few days have brought a rude awakening. From the Des Moines Register:
With an alleged weapons charge, a firearm citation and a loaded gun reportedly found in his vehicle, any immigrant arrested after a judge ordered him deported would have an extremely difficult, if not impossible, chance of remaining in the U.S. — regardless of who is president, immigration advocacy organizations say.
That Des Moines Public School Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts may also have lied to Des Moines Public Schools — indicating on his job application that he was a U.S. citizen when federal officials have alleged he wasn’t — does not improve his case.
Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate under attack by some Republican lawmakers since Roberts’ arrest, warned there is still much about Roberts’ dramatic immigration case to be learned.
But she emphasized to the public on Sept. 27 that Roberts affirmed to the district he was a U.S. citizen who was eligible to work in the district when he was hired in 2023.
I can already see the campaign slogan: “Jackie Norris for Senate: Some people she hired weren’t illegal immigrants!”
The Register continues:
Roberts’ massive challenge in the days ahead likely will be to find a new way to reopen his immigration case — something a federal judge denied in April — or to have his May 2024 removal order cancelled before he is deported.
Wait, the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools had an order to remove issued back in May 2024, and his appeal was denied in April of this year, and no one noticed until ICE arrested him in late September? Why is it that it seems like no one in the entire U.S. federal government can keep a secret, but information that ought to be revealed to the public — “Hey, your local school superintendent is an illegal immigrant” — gets locked up tighter than Fort Knox?
Norris and the school district put out a statement late Friday afternoon:
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In December 2022, DMPS approved a contract with JG Consulting as the district’s search firm to bring qualified Superintendent candidates for our consideration;
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Between January and the end of March 2023, the Board worked with the search firm on a variety of issues related to the qualifications and characteristics of candidates for the position, as the search firm recruited potential candidates for consideration;
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Between April 11-13, the School Board conducted interviews with candidates;
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On May 16, the School Board approved our first contract with Dr. Roberts, who began his role as Superintendent on July 1, 2023.
As a part of their work for DMPS, JG Consulting’s contract included their obligation to disclose to the district all known information of a positive or negative nature regarding candidates for the Superintendent position. That included having comprehensive criminal, credit, and background checks conducted by a third party. In this case, the search firm used a company called Baker-Eubanks to conduct the background check, which found nothing related to citizenship or immigration matters related to Dr. Roberts.
What exactly was this firm looking for in that background check, excessive sharing of Netflix passwords?
The Iowa state government has effectively banned “sanctuary cities,” but apparently that doesn’t mean the state doesn’t have at least one sanctuary school district.
The Most Disappointing Adams to Leave New York Since Jamal
Incumbent and former Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams began the general election as a distant fourth in a four-man race. He remained a distant fourth in a four-man race, with a share of the vote so small, that even if all his remaining supporters en masse transferred their support to another candidate, Zohran Mamdani would still be a strong favorite. A couple weeks ago, rumors predictably emerged that Adams would drop out of the race.
On September 5, Adams scheduled a press conference on a Friday afternoon and announced . . . that the rumors were not true, and no way, no how, would he ever drop out of the mayor’s race:
“So, I want to be clear with you . . . I am in the race. And I am the only one that can beat Mamdani,” Adams said.
“How many times . . . I’ve been told throughout this journey, to step aside, to surrender, to give up, to give in? That’s the same thing we tell everyday New Yorkers. Everyday New Yorkers are not giving up, are not giving in, are not surrendering. So the mayor is not going to do that.”
Adams was indignant that anybody would dare speculate that he would quit.
Yesterday, Adams quit.
Now, when the complete story of the 2025 New York City mayor’s race is told, Adams’s withdrawal will be an afterthought. But this is the sort of thing that makes me irrationally angry. Usually when a candidate’s campaign is struggling and rumors of a withdrawal are swirling, it’s some hapless spokesman who gets put in front of the cameras to insist, “This campaign is going to go on,” while he knows darn well that the candidate is behind closed doors, trying to negotiate something in return for a withdrawal and an endorsement.
In the case of Adams, he himself went in front of the cameras and compared his willingness to stay in the race as an underdog to the fighting spirit of New York City; his will to keep campaigning in the face of overwhelming odds was a demonstration of his tenacity and determination, blah blah blah.
Until 23 days later, when he said, “Eh, never mind, I guess I really am deeply unpopular and have no shot at winning.”
Based upon Greg’s and my interview of Curtis Sliwa, the GOP nominee for mayor, I think it is supremely unlikely that Sliwa will drop out of the race; Sliwa only wants one job, and that’s to be the next mayor of that city.
ADDENDUM: This will be the last Jim-written Morning Jolt until October 10, and once again I am leaving you in the more than capable hands of Dominic Pino, Audrey Fahlberg, and Noah Rothman.
I’m going on a reporting trip to a foreign country that is . . . (Jim pauses checks the headlines) not in an active shooting war, as of this writing. I expect to have a great deal to report upon my return.