GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A year after a gunman attacked The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, killing four people and injuring eight others, there is little left at the site of the tragedy.
An empty parking lot. A locked privacy fence. An empty field.
The church that once stood at 4285 McCandlish Road is gone.
But on Monday, exactly one year after the attack, the congregation will break ground on a new church on the same property.
For Dr. Bridger Frampton, returning to the site carries a weight that is difficult to describe.
“There’s a reverence… this is where we worship, this is where we feel God’s love… and I think reverence is deeper,” Frampton said.
A Sunday morning turns to terror
It was about 10:25 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, when a 40-year-old Burton man drove his pickup truck into the church as hundreds of people gathered for worship.
Authorities said the Burton man got out of the truck and opened fire on worshippers before setting the building on fire.
Four members of the church were killed, and eight other people were injured. The gunman was shot and killed by responding law enforcement officers minutes after the attack began.
The FBI later said the attack was a targeted act of violence believed to have been motivated by the gunman’s anti-religious beliefs against the Latter-day Saint community.
Frampton, an emergency medicine doctor at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital, was inside the church with four of his five children. His wife, Lindsey, was outside in the parking lot with their baby, getting snacks for the kids.
When Frampton heard the crash, his instincts as a doctor took over. He ran toward the sound, initially believing someone might be having a medical emergency.
Then he saw the gunman.
“I can see him. His back is to us and he’s loading his gun… and then it hits… and I remember the gunshots starting and the thought that went through my mind is which one of my friends is getting hit.”
In that instant, Frampton was no longer simply an emergency physician trying to help.
He was a father trying to find his children. Four of them were missing. For the next 31 minutes, Frampton searched.
Along the way, he rescued a man with a gunshot wound, helped pull more than a dozen people through broken windows and repeatedly went back into the smoke-filled church.
Even after the gunman was killed by police, Frampton’s search continued. Two of his children were still missing.
As the minutes passed, Frampton and his wife fell to their knees and prayed.
“We need to say a prayer… ‘Heavenly Father, help us find Lillian and Wesley.’ … Right after that, I had the impression to call a guy I’d never called before… and all of a sudden we hear, ‘Mom, they’re right here.’”
All five of their children were safe.
The doctor becomes the patient
Frampton survived the attack, but breathing smoke and ash while repeatedly entering the burning building had taken a toll.
He was hospitalized and spent four days intubated. His own colleagues at Henry Ford helped save his life.
Eventually, Frampton was reunited with his wife and children.
Four members of his church did not survive: Craig Hayden, John Bond, Thelma Armstrong and William “Pat” Howard.
Hayden was a former Latter-day Saint bishop, father and grandfather. Bond, 77, was a U.S. Navy veteran and grandfather. Armstrong, 54, was a mother who attended the service with her daughter. Howard, 77, was a Vietnam War veteran, husband, father of five and grandfather of 13.
Eight others were injured in the attack, according to the FBI.
Nearly a year later, Frampton has returned to the property where those lives were lost — and where his family experienced another moment that has stayed with him.
Finding faith in the ashes
It took some time after the attack before Frampton brought his daughter Lillian back to the church property.
As father and daughter walked the grounds, Lillian began finding pages among the ashes that had survived the fire — pieces of hymns and scripture.
Then she picked up one particular page.
“She pulls this page up and it says — and she points right to it — and it said, ‘Let no mortal man change the Master’s plan.’ … Dude, I had tears and she like was just like totally got it… you couldn’t have orchestrated it on your own.”
For Frampton, the moment became part of his daughter’s healing.
“I could not have orchestrated that any better… and she after that was able to sleep better.”
Today, even the ashes are gone.
What remains is an empty property carrying the memories of what happened there — and anticipation for what comes next.
“This is not a place to fear, this is a place to revere and to reverence… I’m excited to be back here. I’m excited for the groundbreaking,” Frampton said.
Church prepares to rebuild
On Monday, Sept. 28, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will officially break ground on a new Grand Blanc Stake Center at 4285 McCandlish Road, exactly one year after the attack.
The new building will be larger than the previous stake center, which was dedicated in 1981 and served the Grand Blanc Ward and the wider Grand Blanc Michigan Stake until it was destroyed.
Construction is expected to take about 14 months.
Once construction is complete, church leaders plan to hold a community open house and celebration, welcoming first responders, neighbors, community leaders and the public.
Giving back to Grand Blanc
The rebuilding comes as church members also look for ways to thank the community that supported them after the attack.
On Sept. 24, the church delivered a semitruck of food and household goods to FISH of Grand Blanc.
It was the church’s second such delivery since the attack, following an initial donation last November. Each delivery contained about 40,000 pounds of food and household goods for the community.
Church leaders described the latest donation as a thank-you to the community for the support members have received over the past year.
For Frampton, rebuilding on the same property represents something more than replacing a building.
“There was one individual with a ton of hate. There were hundreds of people with so much love. And that, I think, is the message… there was some darkness, there’s a lot more light.”
Where there was fire, a new church will rise.
And on the ground where his daughter once found faith among the ashes, a congregation is preparing to build again.
