Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.
A Utah man’s online fundraiser for the family of the suspect accused of killing four people in an attack on a Mormon church in Grand Blanc Township has generated more than $333,000 in donations.
Dave Butler, 53, of Provo, Utah, said he created the fundraiser on the platform GiveSendGo because Sanford left behind a wife and child.
People who have donated to the fundraiser, many of them Mormons residing in Utah, about 1,700 miles from where the tragedy unfolded on Sunday, are calling the effort an exercise in “Christ-like” forgiveness that has the power to heal some of the wounds caused by the attack.
Butler acknowledged it’s not a “conventional” fundraiser that pops up on websites like GiveSendGo and GoFundMe after a mass shooting when people want to donate money to help pay for the medical care of survivors or the burial costs of victims.
“Clearly, this family is suffering and they’re going to have a terrible time,” Butler told The Detroit News in a telephone interview.
Butler said he read online accounts of how Sanford left behind a son who suffers from congenital hyperinsulinism, a life-threatening disorder that causes dangerously low blood sugar levels, according to a December 2015 article in the Lake Orion Review about the family.
He viewed the fundraiser for Sanford’s family as one that Mormons and others could get behind, given the “shame and guilt” Sanford’s widow, Tella Sanford, and her family may now face.
“That seems like a hard, hard lot to me,” Butler said.
Sandford’s father, Thomas L. Sanford of Atlas Township, east of Grand Blanc, said Friday that the family was “going day to day, focusing on our duties.”
“It’s been difficult, but we know what has to be done,” Sanford wrote in an email to The Detroit News. “We are grateful to the Mormons for showing their love to us. It’s hard to express our gratitude.”
Butler said he initially set a goal of raising $100,000 for the family, but donations exceeded that amount by Tuesday evening, and he doubled the goal to $200,000. As of 8 a.m. Friday, the campaign had raised more than $333,000, and Butler had changed the goal to $500,000.
“A very large portion of this is a Mormon response, but it’s not 100%,” Butler said. “I have a lot of non-LDS friends, and I know a lot of them contributed.”
Police said Thomas Jacob “Jake” Sanford drove his Chevy pickup into the side of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building in the township around 10:25 a.m. Sunday during worship service. He then allegedly set the building on fire and fired several rounds, striking 10 people. Two people died from gunshots, officials said, and two bodies were found in the rubble.
Sanford, 40, died in a gunfight with police officers.
More than 8,300 individual donors have contributed to the fund. The largest donation was $5,000 from the “Hagen Family,” followed by a $2,000 anonymous donation, $1,500 from the “Miyazaki Family,” and 17 donations of $1,000 each, according to GiveSendGo’s donation dashboard.
Britt Berrett, a teaching professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, said news of Sunday’s attack had left him with a heavy heart. When he saw a social media post promoting Butler’s fundraiser, he paused, reflected on the incident and was moved to tears before making a $1,000 donation.
“For us, that’s Christ-like, to forgive and repent and move on,” Berrett said. “They are really powerful attributes.”
Another member of the Church of Latter-day Saints who made a donation, Austin Taylor of Salt Lake City, said he was in church when he and other worshipers caught news of the attack.
“We all started praying instantly for those affected,” he said.
Taylor said the outpouring of support for the suspect’s family brought to mind the words of Erika Kirk, who publicly forgave the man accused of murdering her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, during a public speaking engagement at a college campus in Utah.
“I think we have some good examples of people being wronged — someone’s husband being murdered, a religious community being attacked — and turning the other cheek,” he said.
Butler has not talked to officials at GiveSendGo, but said he talked with Sanford’s sister Wednesday morning. So the family knows about the fund.
“She cried a lot and I cried a lot,” Butler said.
GiveSendGo responded Thursday afternoon to The News’ multiple inquiries about the authenticity of the fundraising campaign for Sanford’s family.
“At GiveSendGo, we take our verification process seriously to ensure givers can trust that their funds will reach the intended recipient. Every campaign is carefully reviewed, and no funds are released until that verification process is complete,” GiveSendGo communications director Alex Shipley said in an email.
In a summary about the campaign, Butler describes himself as an “ordinary member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” with no connection to the Sanford family.
Butler writes science fiction books, sometimes under the byline D.J. Butler, and regularly appears on LDS podcasts on YouTube called “Ward Radio” and the “Stick of Joseph.”
Butler said he couldn’t take credit for launching a fundraiser for the “victims” in Sanford’s family. He said he saw the idea mentioned by a user on X, formerly Twitter.
“I think my part was very small,” Butler told The News. “If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have done it.”
Meanwhile, donations continue to pour in for victims of the Grand Blanc church attack and their families. The six GoFundMe fundraisers that have been verified by the online platform have collectively raised more than $645,000 as of Thursday evening.
clivengood@detroitnews.com
mreinhart@detroitnews.com