Cops probing whether Michigan church shooting has ties to Mormon leader’s death: report

Detectives are probing whether Sunday’s mass shooting and fire at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan has any connection to the death a day earlier of longtime national church president Russell M. Nelson, according a report.

Investigators are urgently working the shooter’s motive, checking for any recent threats to the congregation and whether the attack’s timing bears any relation to Nelson’s passing on Saturday in Salt Lake City at age 101, to a source briefed on the investigation who spoke to ABC News.

Police have not announced a motive.

Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said a 40-year-old man from Burton drove a vehicle through the front entrance around 10:25 a.m., then exited and fired “several rounds” at parishioners.

Ten people with gunshot wounds were taken to local hospitals; one victim died, Renye said at an afternoon briefing.

Responding cops — including a Michigan Department of Natural Resources officer and a township officer — confronted the gunman and exchanged fire. The suspect was shot and died at the scene, authorities said.

Hundreds of parishioners were inside the church at the time of the attack, according to law enforcement officials, who say they expect to find additional victims.

Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the oldest person ever to lead the faith, died late Saturday at his Salt Lake City home. He was 101.

The church said Nelson died shortly after 10 p.m. local time Saturday. He is survived by his wife, Wendy; eight of his 10 children from his first marriage; 57 grandchildren; and more than 167 great-grandchildren.

Before church leadership, Nelson built a renowned medical career. A pioneering heart surgeon, he performed Utah’s first open-heart operation in 1955.

He helped develop an artificial heart-lung machine and served in top professional posts, including president of the Utah State Medical Association.

He later served as director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Nelson shifted to full-time church leadership in 1984.