Thomas Sanford, the shooter's father, said that the family is "devastated" by his son's actions. "We are completely in shock over this; we have no answers," Thomas Sanford said in a statement provided to NBC News. Thomas Jacob Sanford was killed in a shootout with police at the scene. "We believe that [the fire] was deliberately set by the suspect," Renye said during the news conference, noting that the blaze was extinguished by the Grand Blanc Fire Department. The suspect lived about six miles from the church located in Grand Blanc, a small city about 60 miles away from central Detroit.