Kris Johns, a Burton city council candidate near Michigan’s Grand Blanc Township, was going door to door on his campaign trail when he met Thomas Jacob Sanford — nearly a week before Sanford carried out a deadly attack on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel.
After parking on the side of the road — something he had done thousands of times on the campaign trail — Johns was approached by a very “jovial” and “positive” Sanford, who asked if he was having car trouble.
The conversation began as general chit-chat, with both men sharing information about their backgrounds. Johns said he didn’t notice any red flags from Sanford.
Then the conversation shifted. “What are your thoughts on guns?” Sanford — the US Marine and Iraq War veteran — asked Johns, the Burton candidate recalled to CNN’s Leigh Waldman. Johns said he responded, “I support the Second Amendment,” and that was the end of the discussion.
Taking a sharp turn, Sanford then asked, “What are your thoughts on Mormons?”
“Any answer I provided that was positive was not going to be satisfactory,” Johns recalled to CNN, saying Sanford’s questions became “increasingly pointed,” turning 15 of the 20-minute conversation into talks about religion. Johns speculated that Sanford had a “long-standing anger” toward the LDS church.
After the conversation, Johns left a voicemail for a friend in the LDS Church, flagging his interaction with Sanford and noting that knocking on doors can lead to encounters with people who have “very unique ideas.”
After Johns heard about the attack at the LDS church, he said, “Nothing made me think of making that connection to this gentleman last week” until photos were shared Sunday afternoon. That’s when he reached out to investigators.
Read more about Sanford here.