One person was shot at a church in Wayne, Michigan, on Sunday morning and an alleged gunman was killed following the shooting, police said.
Chief Ryan Strong said 911 calls about the shooting at CrossPointe Community Church on the 36000 block of Glenwood Road started coming in around 11:06 a.m. Investigators say the suspect, later identified by officials as 31-year-old Brian Anthony Browning from Romulus, Michigan, was driving recklessly when he arrived at the church.
“The suspect exited his vehicle wearing a tactical vest, armed with a long gun and handgun,” Strong said.
The man then started firing one of his weapons at the church from the outside, police said. One of the parishioners struck the man with his vehicle, and at least two staff members shot at him, killing the attacker, police said. The suspect was pronounced dead on the scene by Wayne Fire Rescue.
A security guard who shot at the gunman spoke with CBS News Monday.
“It took me a minute to process what I was seeing outside the front doors. He was spraying bullets. There’s bullets all through the front of the building. There’s bullet holes and tables in the lobby and chairs. There’s bullet holes everywhere,” Jay Trombley said. “The weight is coming. I know I did something yesterday that is going to stick with me for the rest of my life. I took a life yesterday, but I saved a lot of lives.”
A livestream of the church’s morning service showed parishioners, including several women and children, running to the back of the church when they heard the gunshots. CrossPointe Community Church Pastor Bobby Kelly Jr. said there were about 150 people at the service at the time.
One of the staff members who shot at the man was a security guard for the church, police said. He was shot in the leg by the gunman. Both employees were taken to the hospital with injuries that are not considered life-threatening, according to police.
WJZ
Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in a post on X Sunday afternoon that leadership and support teams are at the scene “providing assistance and investigative support.”
Police are working to learn the motive behind the shooting. They have learned that the suspect’s mother is a member of the church and he did attend services there two or three times in the past year. He did not have a criminal history or any previous contacts with the Wayne Police Department.
The suspect was armed with an AR-15 style rifle with more than a dozen fully loaded magazines, a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine and “hundreds of rounds of ammunition,” a follow up police report issued Monday morning said. There has been a search warrant served at his home, where additional rifles, several more semi-automatic handguns and an additional large amount of ammunition was seized and confiscated.
Statements from the church
Pastor Bobby Kelly Jr. spoke with CBS News Detroit about how the parishioners were feeling in the hours after the shooting.
“The people who were very distraught and really broken up about this, they still took it very well because they recognized what could’ve happened that did not happen,” he said.
Kelly also issued a written statement to the media Monday about the incident, which reads in part:
As details emerge, we are seeing God’s hand of protection more clearly in what could have been, simply wasn’t.
There are many heroes, both men and women who acted bravely and selflessly to prevent an all out catastrophe. Among these were the members of our security team who engaged the subject and subdued the threat. There is also the church member who was divinely positioned to see the assailant approaching the church in full tactical gear, including an assault rifle, and acted swiftly to hit him with his truck, injuring him. This action kept the gunman from ever entering the building and gave our security team extra needed seconds to respond. Glory to God!
To the Wayne Police, EMS, and Fire, along with the other localities that arrived on scene, thank you for your very swift response to secure the scene and offer support and comfort as we tried to catch our breath from this attack.
Lastly, we are extremely encouraged by the response from several local churches, grief counseling agencies who have reached out to assist. We will be taking advantage of as much as we can to help us move forward. But most importantly, thank you for all of your many prayers. They are much needed at this time.
Parishioner describes harrowing moments during the shooting
Parishioner Dustin Fuoco, who lives on the church property and runs the facility’s sound system, told CBS News on Sunday that he initially couldn’t find his wife and newborn baby after the gunshots rang out.
“I was up in the upper level, so just me and a couple of our tech crew up there, and we heard a round of shots, sounded like probably 10, and it sounded like a jackhammer,” Fuoco said.
He said the crew heard another round of 10 shots about 20 seconds later.
“At that point, we all realized it was a shooter,” Fuoco said. “So the first thing I did at that point was, being up there by myself, I ran right downstairs because in the room right next to the first level is the baby room. So that’s where my wife and newborn were. And [I was] very terrified because that room was emptied out. So, at that point, everybody’s scattering.”
Fuoco said he ran outside to a wooded area where other parishioners were, and found his wife and newborn around 15 minutes later.
