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Trump to hold high-stakes meeting with Democrats as government shutdown looms

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Top congressional leaders are heading to the White House Monday afternoon to meet with President Donald Trump in a last-ditch effort to avert a government shutdown — but as a stalemate persists just one day from the deadline, a shutdown seems nearly inevitable barring an unexpected breakthrough.

Hours before the meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that there’s “nothing to negotiate” with bipartisan congressional leadership Monday — as the administration continues to push lawmakers to pass a short-term funding bill known as a clean clean continuing resolution.

“Our message and what we want out of this is very simple: The president wants to keep the government open. He wants to keep the government funded. There is zero good reason for Democrats to vote against this clean continuing resolution,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House Monday morning. “The president is giving Democrats one last chance to be reasonable today.”

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are digging in ahead of the Tuesday night deadline – with Democrats maintaining their posture that they will not vote to keep the government open without lofty health care concessions. Those demands include restoring $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts passed into law this summer on top of a permanent extension of the Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, saving health insurance for 3.8 million people at a cost of $350 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“House Democrats, Senate Democrats are in lockstep,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday morning at the Capitol. “We’re headed into the meeting to have a good faith negotiation about landing the plane in a way that avoids a government shutdown but does not continue the Republican assault on the health care of the American people.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he hopes the meeting is focused on “serious negotiation.”

“We need a serious negotiation. Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant, and just yell at Democrats, and talk about all his alleged grievances, and say this, that, and the other thing, we won’t get anything done. But my hope is it’ll be a serious negotiation,” Schumer said on Sunday.

The meeting marks the first bicameral, bipartisan congressional leadership face-to-face meeting of Trump’s second term — and comes after a previously-scheduled meeting last week was nixed by the president after he said he reviewed the Democratic proposal and judged that a meeting would not be productive.

“Republicans control the House and the Senate, and as a Republican president, if the government shuts down, it’s because Republicans want to shut the government down,” Jeffries said.

A meeting was agreed to after Schumer implored Senate Majority Leader John Thune for help getting through to Trump, according to a Schumer aide — though Jeffries seems unmoved by the prospect of drawn-out negotiations.

Last week, the White House issued guidance to federal agencies that they should consider executing a reduction in force for federal employees whose jobs are not deemed essential to government operations — a move intended to increase pressure on Democrats who have a stated goal to protect a federal workforce that’s already been slashed by the Trump administration.

While House Republicans passed a stop-gap measure to keep the government open through Nov. 21, the measure has stalled in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats must vote for any measure that staves off a shutdown.

Republicans crafted a “clean” seven-week stop-gap bill in order to create more time for congressional appropriators to work through regular order: 12 separate full-year funding bills. Congress has not passed all 12 appropriations bills through regular order since 1997, and the task has only been completed four times since 1977 when current budget rules took effect.

Speaker Mike Johnson maintained over the weekend that passing the short-term continuing resolution is “buying a little time” for the regular appropriations process.

“The Obamacare subsidies is a policy debate that has to be determined by the end of the year, Dec. 31 — not right now, while we’re simply trying to keep the government open so we can have all these debates,” Johnson said on CNN on Sunday.

The federal government has shut down due to a lapse in appropriations 10 times since 1980, with the longest shutdown, 35 days, occurring during the first Trump administration.

How the potential government shutdown would impact travel

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A federal government shutdown is looming, with the government set to run out of funding at midnight from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the impacts a potential shutdown would have on travel:

Will TSA work in a shutdown?

Transportation Security Administration workers at airport checkpoints will continue to work — without pay — during a shutdown.

According to Department of Homeland Security documents, 58,488 employees out of the total TSA workforce of 61,475 will be retained during a shutdown.

Will my flight get canceled?

No. Commercial flights will continue to operate and airline employees will not be impacted.

How will air traffic controllers be impacted?

Over 13,000 air traffic controllers will continue to work — without pay — during a shutdown, according to the Department of Transportation’s shutdown plan.

The only controllers who will be furloughed will be those who are not certified or are in training at the ATC academy, and all training would cease. NATCA, the union representing air traffic controllers, previously told ABC News that the shutdown in 2018-2019 “eroded critical layers of safety necessary to support and maintain the [national air space]. Many of the safety activities that proactively reduce risk and increase the safety of the system were suspended during that shutdown.”

What happened to air travel during the 2018-2019 shutdown?

During the 2018-2019 shutdown, which lasted for 35 days, TSA officers called out of work at an increased rate due to financial hardship, a TSA spokesperson told ABC News at the time. Those staffing shortages caused some TSA lines to close, which led to an increased wait time for passengers to get through security.

ABC News reported that air traffic controllers called out sick at the centers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Florida, leading to a staffing-related ground stop at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and flight delays at some New York and Florida airports. Hours after flights were stopped, President Donald Trump ended the shutdown. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., credited the controllers with ending the shutdown, The New York Times reported.

What about train travel?

Amtrak said in a statement that its operations will continue as usual.

“Passengers planning to travel on Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor and across the country in the coming days and weeks can be assured that Amtrak will remain open for business,” Amtrak said.

‘Haunting’ yogurt shop quadruple killings solved more than 3 decades later

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(AUSTIN, Texas) — Police in Austin, Texas, said they’ve finally identified the man who killed four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in 1991 in a crime that has haunted the city.

Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayers were attacked in the shop and all shot in the head, lead detective Daniel Jackson said at a news conference on Monday.

The girls were left nude and tied up, and there was evidence of sexual assault, he said. The building was set on fire before the killer fled the scene, Jackson said.

Jackson, who took over the case in 2022, said this June he started researching a spent .380 casing found at the scene.

“It had not been submitted into the NIBIN system in many years. NIBIN is a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network — it’s kind of like CODIS [the Combined DNA Index System] for shell casings,” Jackson explained.

In July, Jackson learned of a hit in NIBIN: It appeared the same gun was used in an unsolved murder in Kentucky, which shared “similar details” with the yogurt shop murders, he said.

“But aside from the MO [modus operandi] and the NIBIN hit, there are no obvious links,” he said.

Since 2008, investigators have also tried many DNA testing strategies, Jackson said, conducting new searches over the years as DNA databases have grown. From the scene, investigators had obtained the suspect’s Y-STR, which is y chromosome DNA, he said.

Jackson said police reached out to labs that conduct Y-STR typing and “asked if they can manually search against our unknown profile — and we got a match.”

“The South Carolina state lab was the only lab in the country that responded that they had a match … the full profile and every allele was the same,” Jackson said.

In August, that lab found a match to a 1990 sexual assault and murder in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson said. “And this was the profile that they had: Robert Eugene Brashers,” he said.

Austin police then retested the Y-STR DNA from under Ayers’ fingernails, he said. “It was directly compared to Brashers’ profile — and it matched,” Jackson said.

Before the yogurt shop murders, Brashers had served time in prison for shooting a woman, and he was granted parole in 1989, Jackson said.

DNA also links Brashers to multiple “unsolved murders and sexual assaults across the country,” Jackson said. “He’s good for sexual assaults and murders throughout the ’90s that he never had to stand trial for.”

Brashers died by suicide in 1999 after a standoff with officers, police said.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis called the murders “one of the most devastating and haunting cases in the city’s history.”

Barbara Ayres-Wilson, mom of victims Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, said at Monday’s news conference, “I’m full of gratitude. It has been so long, and all we ever wanted for this case was the truth.”

“We never wanted anyone to go to jail or be charged with anything that they did not do — vengeance was never it,” she said. “It was always the truth.”

At the news conference, Travis County District Attorney José Garza addressed the four suspects who were arrested in 1999.

“There are still investigative steps that are underway. That being said, the overwhelming weight of the evidence points to the guilt of one man and the innocence of four,” he said. “If the conclusions of that investigation are confirmed, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office will take responsibility for our role in prosecuting these men, in sending one to death row and one to serve life in prison. If the conclusions of APD’s investigations are confirmed, as it appears that they will be, I will say I am sorry, though I know that that will never be enough.”

Marine awarded Purple Heart charged in deadly North Carolina waterfront bar shooting

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SOUTHPORT, N.C.) — Prosecutors are weighing the death penalty for a Marine veteran they allege was the rifle-wielding “lone wolf” who opened fire from a boat on a waterfront bar in Southport, North Carolina, over the weekend, killing three people and wounding eight others in what police described as a “highly premeditated” attack.

The suspect, 40-year-old Nigel Edge, is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday afternoon, officials said.

Edge, who changed his name from Sean William Debevoise in 2023, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder. He is also charged with five counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or injure.

ABC News has confirmed with the United States Marine Corps that Edge served nearly six years in the Marines from September 2003 to June 2009, and was awarded the Purple Heart. He was deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005 and 2006 and ultimately rose to the rank of sergeant, officials said.

Photos that surfaced on Sunday appear to show Edge once escorted American Idol singer Kellie Pickler to the 2012 Country Music Awards while dressed in his formal Marine uniform.

The mass shooting in Southport happened just 12 hours before another Marine veteran who also served Operation Iraqi Freedom allegedly rammed his truck through the front doors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and opened fire on the congregation with an assault weapon, killing four people and injuring eight, authorities said. The suspected Michigan gunman was killed in a gunfight with police.

During a news conference on Sunday, North Carolina authorities alleged that Edge targeted patrons of the American Fish Company on the Southport waterfront, who were on an outdoor deck listening to live music when the suspect opened fire with an assault rifle from a boat.

“Some facts that we have at this time are that we believe this was a targeted location. It appears that he acted as what we call a ‘lone wolf.’ He acted alone,” Southport Police Chief Todd Coring said at the news conference. “This is highly premeditated from what we’re seeing at this time.”

Edge was detained by the Coast Guard about a half-hour after the 10:25 p.m. shooting, when he was spotted loading his boat at a public boat ramp in Oak Island, North Carolina, just a few nautical miles from the crime scene, officials said. After being questioned by investigators, Edge was arrested and charged with the shooting.

“We understand that this suspect identifies as a combat veteran. He self-identifies. Injured in the line of duty is what he’s saying. He suffers from PTSD. We want to point those facts out,” Coring said.

Marine officials did not release details on the circumstances that led to Edge being awarded the Purple Heart, but did disclose that his last duty assignment was with the Wounded Warriors Battalion East.

Jon David, the local district attorney, said during Sunday’s news conference that more charges could be filed against Edge and that his office is considering the death penalty.

“I will say that North Carolina is a state for which the death penalty is a potential, and my office does seek it in appropriate cases,” David said. “I have a team of senior prosecutors that meets as part of a death penalty review committee, and we make sure that we thoroughly evaluate the facts and the law on a case-by-case basis.”

A motive for the Southport shooting remains under investigation. However, David said finding a motive is not essential to prosecuting the suspect.

“People frequently want to know what happened and why. As prosecutors in a courtroom, we have to prove intent. Intent and motive are very different things,” David said. “We don’t actually have to prove motive. We don’t know why people do what they do.”

David added that the thread connecting the victims in the shooting “appears to be a love of having a good time and enjoying all that Southport has to offer.”

“Sadly, a lot of the victims in this case appear to be not members of our community, but people who were here on vacation,” David said.

He said that other than a few minor brushes with the law, Edge “wasn’t quite as well known in the criminal court system.”

“There are some minor contacts over the years, but nothing significant in his past which would give us any indication that he was capable of such horror,” David said.

Federal courts may quickly face curtailed operations if government shuts down

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Federal courts may be forced to quickly curtail operations — potentially delaying trials and other hearings — if congressional funding is not extended beyond Sept. 30, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts told ABC News.

While in previous government shutdowns the courts have found ways to use court fees and other financial tools to sustain full functionality and schedules — at least for several weeks — years of tighter budgets and rising costs have created a much more difficult situation in today’s landscape.

A government shutdown could begin at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, if there is a lapse is federal government funding.

“Judiciary operations would continue using court fees and other available balances through Friday, October 3,” the spokesperson, Jaculine Koszczuk, said in a statement.

After that, while the judiciary will not formally shut down, some operations may begin being put on hold.

“We will continue to assess available fees and balances after FY 2025 closes to determine if operations can be sustained beyond that date,” Koszczuk said. “Should fees and balances be exhausted before Congress enacts a continuing resolution or full-year funding, the Judiciary would then operate under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act. Federal courts would continue operating, but would be limited to activities needed to support the exercise of the Judiciary’s constitutional functions and to address emergency circumstances.”

Reuters was first to report that Judge Robert Conrad, director of the Administrative Office, issued a warning this week to judges and other court officials about the looming financial crisis — calling this year’s situation a “very sharp change” from the past.

The U.S. Supreme Court — which was established by the Constitution, not Congress — would be largely unaffected.

“In the event of a lapse of appropriations, the Court will continue to conduct its normal operations,” Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe told ABC. “The Court will rely on permanent funds not subject to annual approval, as it has in the past, to maintain operations through the duration of short-term lapses of annual appropriations.”

Justices and federal judges would continue to be paid during a shutdown because federal law prohibits cuts to their pay once appointed for life. Many of the 33,000 other employees of the federal judiciary could face furloughs without pay.

The last time the judiciary experienced staff furloughs during a shutdown was 1995, when appropriations lapsed for three weeks until Congress reached a deal to end the standoff.

Tropical Storm Imelda: Tracking the storm’s path near the Southeast coast

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Imelda won’t make landfall in the United States, but it will skirt close to the Southeast coast, bringing rain, strong winds, high surf, rip currents and isolated flash flooding or coastal flooding.

Here’s what you need to know:

As Imelda moves north, the storm will bring rain to the Carolinas on Monday and then stretch from the Carolinas to Virginia by Tuesday.

Imelda is forecast to bring 1 to 2 inches of rain to the South Carolina/North Carolina border on Monday and Tuesday. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, areas may see 2 to 4 inches.

Dangerous ocean conditions are also forecast from Florida to North Carolina. Rip currents are expected for much of the East Coast and high surf alerts are in place.

Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina could see waves reaching 5 to 10 feet from Monday evening through Thursday morning. On Monday and Tuesday, waves could hit 11 feet in northern Florida and southern Georgia.

A wind advisory is also in place on Monday for the Central Florida coast. Winds could hit 40 mph in Melbourne, Palm Bay and Port St. Lucie.

Imelda will move north on Monday, and then when it’s positioned east of Central Florida on Tuesday morning, it’ll take a steep turn northeast and head toward Bermuda. Imelda may hit Bermuda as a hurricane on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Humberto, a Category 4 hurricane, will bring heavy rain to Bermuda on Tuesday. Humberto will then continue to move northeast out into the Atlantic.

Rubio announces release of US citizen held by Afghanistan

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement Sunday the release of U.S. citizen Amir Amiry, who had been considered wrongfully detained in Afghanistan.

This is the fifth release of an American citizen from detention in Afghanistan this year. Amiry’s case was not previously known to the public.

In his statement, Rubio thanked and credited President Donald Trump for his leadership and commitment, and he also gave credit to Qatar for helping to secure Amiry’s release.

“Today, thanks to President Trump’s leadership and commitment to the American people, the United States welcomes home U.S. citizen Amir Amiry who was wrongfully detained in Afghanistan. We express our sincere gratitude to Qatar, whose strong partnership and tireless diplomatic efforts were vital to securing his release,” Rubio said in his statement.

Rubio said there are still other Americans “unjustly detained” in Afghanistan and Trump “won’t rest” until they are returned home.

Officials at the State Department have said they hope an executive order signed by Trump earlier this year will deter nations from wrongfully detaining American citizens and that it will help to secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans abroad. The EO enhances efforts to protect U.S. nationals from wrongful detention abroad by authorizing robust responses against foreign governments engaging in such practices.

Special envoy for hostage response Adam Boehler traveled to Kabul to personally oversee Amiry’s release and to make sure all went according to plan, according to an administration official.

The official notes that Amiry was an American citizen and had received a special immigrant visa (SIV), which is a U.S. immigration program for Iraqis and Afghans who worked for the U.S. government or military to become permanent residents. Examples of SIV holders include translators and interpreters. Details of Amiry’s employment were not provided.

The diplomatic talks and negotiations leading to Amiry’s release was a joint U.S.-Qatari effort. This was not a prisoner exchange and the U.S. did not give anything to the Taliban in exchange for Amiry’s safe return, a U.S. official said.

Amiry’s release and Boehler’s visit to the region comes one week after Trump urged the Taliban to give back control of Bagram Air Base to the United States, threatening “bad things” would happen to Afghanistan if it does not.

Trump seeks expedited Supreme Court review of birthright citizenship executive order

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump praised the U.S. Supreme Court in June for a “monumental victory” when it rolled back nationwide injunctions against his executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.

Three months later, after two federal courts universally blocked the order again on different grounds, Trump is asking the justices for a definitive judgment on his reinterpretation of more than a century of settled legal precedent.

In filings, reviewed by ABC News Sunday but not yet on the Supreme Court’s public docket, Solicitor General John Sauer urges the justices to give expedited consideration to Trump’s appeal and a decision by next summer.

“The government has a compelling interest in ensuring that American citizenship—the privilege that allows us to choose our political leaders—is granted only to those who are lawfully entitled to it,” Sauer wrote in a petition for writ of certiorari.

“The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” he wrote. “Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”

Courts and the government have long interpreted the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause to apply to anyone born in the U.S., regardless of the immigration status of a child’s parents.

The Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, states that all “persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order unilaterally declaring that only newborns whose parents have permanent legal status are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. and therefore eligible to be citizens.

An estimated 255,000 children are born on U.S. soil each year to one or more parents without American citizenship or permanent legal status, according to the Penn State Social Science Research Institute.

The administration is not seeking to begin enforcing the executive order until the Supreme Court decides whether or not to take up the case and ultimately render judgment — a decision likely months away.

“This executive order is illegal, full stop, and no amount of maneuvering from the administration is going to change that,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement. “We will continue to ensure that no one baby’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this cruel and senseless order.”

A federal judge in New Hampshire in July ruled that Trump’s order plainly appears to violate the Constitution and blocked enforcement of it in a class-action suit that covers all children who would be affected.

A separate ruling by a federal appeals court, also in July, blocked enforcement of the order nationwide, saying that a group of state plaintiffs could only be protected from the citizenship restrictions if they were put universally on hold.

The administration told the Supreme Court it seeks to appeal both cases.

The plaintiffs in each case — the ACLU and Washington State attorney general — provided ABC News with copies of the government’s filings.

In 1898, the Supreme Court previously addressed the question of citizenship for children born to non-citizens on U.S. soil, ruling in the landmark case U.S. v Wong Kim Ark that they are Americans under the law.

“The [14th] Amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States,” wrote Justice Horace Gray for the 6-2 majority. “Every citizen or subject of another country, while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction, of the United States.”

The Trump administration is attempting to argue that there is wiggle room in that precedent to still exclude from citizenship children born to temporary visitors and illegal aliens.

“The reliance interest for all of the people who are already here in the United States to whom birthright citizenship is a cherished right, and for the nation prospectively – this would be an earthquake if the Supreme Court were to rule in Trump’s favor,” said Hofstra Law professor, constitutional scholar, and ABC News legal contributor James Sample.

“I don’t see that happening,” Sample said. “On a political level, however, Trump likely sees this as favorable ground in the sense that even if he loses on the law, even if he loses in the Supreme Court, many of his political allies would see this as the kind of red meat political fight that they relish, and he would love to run against a loss.”

Gunman in Michigan church shooting was Marine and Iraq War veteran: Officials

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GRAND BLANC, Mich.) — The man suspected of opening fire on a Michigan LDS church on Sunday was a 40-year-old veteran of the Iraq War, according to officials.

Police said the suspect, Thomas Jacob Sanford, drove his truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, before firing shots and setting the building on fire.

Sanford was killed in a shootout with police, officials said. At least four churchgoers were killed, and eight others were injured in the attack.

In the wake of the deadly rampage, Sanford’s military record has come into focus. The truck that he drove into the church bears an Iraq War veteran license plate, according to officials.

A photo posted to Sanford’s mother’s Facebook account appears to show him standing in front of the truck allegedly used in Sunday’s attack

ABC News has confirmed with the United States Marine Corps that Sanford served four years in the Marines from June 2004 to June 2008. He ultimately rose to the rank of sergeant, officials said.

He had one combat tour to Iraq that ended three months before he left the Marines, being deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom in August 2007.

While serving, Sanford specialized in handling military vehicle equipment. Both as a technician responsible for inspecting, servicing and repairing motor transport equipment like tactical vehicles and as a vehicle recovery operator, responsible for bringing back armored vehicles in support of troop missions.

He left the military in March of 2008, after working in combat logistics at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Sanford’s record provided by the Marine Corps indicates that he was given typical recognition at the time of his service for those of his rank.

Sanford was also a father of a son who grappled with serious health obstacles after he was born, according to posts online from the family and the hospital.

No motive has yet been identified in the deadly shooting and fire on Sunday.

Investigators probe for motive in Michigan LDS church shooting, fire

September 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GRAND BLANC, Mich.) — The search for more potential victims of a mass shooting at a Michigan church continued into Monday, after a gunman killed at least four people while hundreds were worshiping on Sunday morning.

Gunman Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, drove his truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on Sunday morning, before shooting congregants and setting the building on fire, according to officials.

At least four people were killed and eight others were injured in the shooting and fire, according to police. The gunman was then killed in a shootout with responding police, law enforcement said.

The FBI is leading the investigation, calling the attack an “act of targeted violence.”

Officials confirmed that of those shot, one victim died at the scene, another later died at the hospital and two more individuals were found dead at the scene due to the fire. Eight others remain hospitalized, seven are in stable condition and one is in critical condition.

Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye told reporters Sunday, “We do believe we will find additional victims once we have that scene secured.”

Officials said that the chapel is a “total loss” as investigators work to comb through the rubble.

A source briefed on the investigation told ABC News that detectives are urgently working to determine the motive behind the shooting.

Investigators are working to learn whether the church had been the target of threats in recent months and looking to see whether the timing could be connected to the death on Saturday of Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was 101 years old.

Renye said during Sunday’s news conference that the FBI had assigned more than 100 agents to help in the investigation.

Renye said the gunman “ran the vehicle through the front door, exited and started firing shots,” adding that it remains unclear what connection, if any, the suspect had to the church.

Sanford was a veteran of the Iraq War, according to officials. ABC News confirmed with the United States Marine Corps that Sanford served four years in the Marines from June 2004 to June 2008. He ultimately rose to the rank of sergeant, officials said, serving one combat tour to Iraq.

President Donald Trump said had been briefed on the shooting and fire, writing Sunday on social media, “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”

“The Trump Administration will keep the Public posted, as we always do. In the meantime, PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump said.

Trump also wrote that the FBI is leading the investigation efforts. Trump said that while the suspect is dead, there is “still a lot to learn.”

Vice President JD Vance posted his own statement on social media, calling the shooting and fire at an LDS church “awful.” He said the “entire” Trump administration is monitoring the incident.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said her “heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community” in a statement on X.

“Violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable,” she said. “I am grateful to the first responders who took action quickly. We will continue to monitor this situation and hold the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Grand Blanc close.”

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