The man who plowed into a Michigan church with his truck before opening fire on its congregation may been suffering from a mental breakdown and had previously attended services there with his mother.
Brian Anthony Browning, 31, of Romulus, Michigan, was shot dead by security guards at CrossPointe Church in Wayne, a suburb of Detroit, on Sunday morning in an attack that was broadcast via livestream.
He began the attack by ramming his Ford F-150 truck into the building at 11.06am before opening fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle during services.
The Wayne Police Department said he ‘may have been suffering a mental health crisis’ and had nothing to do with organized terrorism.
‘The suspect’s mother is a member of the church, in which he has attended church services two or three times over the course of the last year,’ it said.
‘The church security team was alerted by the gunfire and reacted quickly to engage the suspect outside the main entrance doors of the church.’
One security guard was shot twice in the leg and is recovering in hospital after surgery. Some bullets went into the church by no one else was hurt.
Browning was armed with a AR-15-style assault rifle with more than a dozen magazines of ammunition, and a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, police said.
Police found rifles, semi-automatic handguns, and a large amount of ammunition when they searched his home after the shooting.
He had no criminal history or prior contact with police, and the motive for his attack remains unknown.
Horrific footage from a church service’s livestream showed the moment that frantic families started running for their lives when the shooter opened fire.
The bloodcurdling video showed churchgoers suddenly realize the unfolding terror and run towards the door.
Young children were on the stage and in the pews with their parents, before one member directed the congregation to ‘get down’ and run to the back of the building.
Chilling screams, ‘come on, come on’, were heard as kids and adults fled for their lives, followed by a loud bang and shouting off-screen.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, said the agency was on the ground providing ‘assistance and investigative support’ in Wayne.
The church’s senior pastors, Bobby Kelly Jr, told The Detroit News that a member ran the shooter over, giving the security guard a chance to shoot them.
‘He (the suspect) was run over by one of our members who saw this happening when he was coming into church,’ the pastor said.
‘We are grateful for the heroic actions of the church’s staff members, who undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented a large-scale mass shooting,’ Wayne Police Chief Ryan Strong said
Kelly added that there were about 150 people in attendance for the vacation Bible school service. Many of the attendees were children.
The pastor said that when the congregation initially heard noises outside, they thought it was from construction.
He said that the church hired security more than a decade ago in response to increased violence against places of worship.
Kelly said they felt like ‘sitting ducks’ without protection. The congregation’s leadership is planning a meeting to put together a plan for dealing with the shooting’s aftermath.
When asked about the children who witnessed the shooting, he said they were ‘doing good’ and that the congregation was coming together to support one another.
The church’s official schedule had events listed from 9am to 6pm. CrossPointe also hosts adult and teen Sunday School and kids Sunday school at the church from 9.30 to 10.30am.
Wendy Bodin, a witness at the church, told ClickOnDetroit that she was in the lobby answering a phone call when she saw the attacker.
‘It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been involved in,’ Bodin recalled.
She said she initially thought the shooter just crashed his car, but then fled to the bathroom when she heard gunshots.
Bodin hid out in the bathroom with another churchgoer and eventually fled the building to meet the rest of the congregation in the woods.
‘I was hiding in one of the bathrooms and stood on the toilet and shut the door. We didn’t know what was going on, but we knew it was bad,’ she said.
She said she was grateful for security and the church leaders following protocol.
‘Fortunately they got everyone out of the building safe. We did have one man for sure got shot in the leg, but he’s OK, from what I’ve been told. So, praise God,’ she said.
Bodin said the church held services outside last weekend for Father’s Day and was grateful the attack didn’t happen then.
