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 o

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