In brief
Lisa Louis, a survivor of the tragic Michigan church shooting, shares her experience of encountering the shooter and instinctively forgiving him. Reflecting on the chaos, she emphasizes the necessity of compassion and unity against hatred. Her heartfelt message seeks to inspire others to combat fear and anger through love.
A woman who survived a horrific shooting at a Michigan church remarked that in a moment of chaos, she managed to look into the eyes of the shooter, Thomas “Jake” Sanford, and saw pain and a sense of being lost. Lisa Louis, 45, who lost her father and three others in the incident, expressed an immediate feeling of forgiveness for the gunman.
In a handwritten statement shared on social media, Louis conveyed, “He let me live,” illustrating her profound emotional response during the tragic event.
She also made an impassioned plea for public peace, stating, “Fear breeds anger, anger breeds hate, hate breeds suffering. If we can stop the hate we can stop the suffering. But stopping the hate takes all of us.”
The incident took place on a Sunday, where the shooter drove his truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township before unleashing gunfire at the congregation and subsequently setting the building ablaze. Police fatally shot Sanford at the scene.
Those close to Sanford indicated he had longstanding grievances towards the Mormon church, after having lived in Utah, the church's home state. Friends described his feelings as rooted in deep hostility.
During the attack, Louis was beside her mortally wounded father, Craig Hayden, when Sanford approached her and posed a question. “I never took my eyes off his eyes,” Louis recounted. “I saw pain, he felt lost. I forgave him right there, not in words, but with my heart.”
She has chosen not to give further interviews but her brother-in-law suggested that her interaction with the gunman may have provided crucial time for others to escape. In the aftermath of the shooting, aside from her father, three other individuals were confirmed to have died, while eight others sustained injuries.
In a troubling side note, it was revealed that Sanford had sought to have his son baptized at a nearby church only weeks before the shooting, indicating signs of frustration when his request was rejected due to his son being deemed unable to understand the sacrament.
