A man was shot dead by a security guard on Sunday after he opened fire outside a Michigan church during a service has been identified as a 31-year-old who attended the church with his mother.
Brian Anthony Browning, from Romulus, Michigan, was armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle with more than a dozen magazines of ammunition, a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Wayne Police Department said in a statement.
“The suspect’s mother is a member of the church, in which he has attended church services two or three times over the course of the last year,” the statement said.
Police said their ongoing investigation suggests “he may have been suffering a mental health crisis” and had no prior contact with law enforcement officers.
There have been no details on the possible motive for the shooting, but police pointed out there was no evidence to suggest it was linked to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as has been the case in recent attacks across the U.S. The suspect had no previous contacts with the Wayne Police Department or a criminal history.
Police were first called to CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, a western suburb of Detroit, at 11:06 a.m., to reports of a white man wearing camouflage gear and a tactical vest. One witness said he was driving a silver SUV “erratically” in the parking lot.
Minutes later, further 911 calls said the suspect fired a weapon, before a parishioner driving a pickup truck hit the suspect with his vehicle.
CrossPointe Community Church Senior Pastor Bobby Kelly Jr said the churchgoer noticed the shooting was in progress and drove towards the shooter, striking him.
“He was run over by one of our members who saw this happening when he was coming into church,” Kelly told the Detroit News, adding that this allowed the security team to return fire.
“The church security team was alerted by the gunfire and reacted quickly to engage the suspect outside the main entrance doors of the church,” the Wayne Police Department said in a statement.
The front doors were locked, and a member of the security team shot and killed the suspect. One member of the security team was shot twice in the leg in what authorities said was a “non-life-threatening” injury. Police said he was in a stable condition in a local hospital, having undergone successful surgery Sunday night.
Bullets were fired into the church, Kelly said, but no one else was injured during the shooting.
Officers gave life-saving treatment to the suspect, but he was pronounced dead at the scene by Wayne Fire Rescue.
Police searched Browning’s home and found even more weapons, including rifles, semi-automatic handguns, and a large amount of ammunition.
The recording of an internet livestream of the church service, which shows parishioners ducking and running out of the room, is genuine, police said.
“We are grateful for the heroic actions of the church’s staff members, who undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented a large-scale mass shooting,” Police Chief Ryan Strong said in a Sunday news conference.
State Sen. Darrin Camilleri, who represents Wayne, said in a statement on X that it was “deeply disturbing” that a gunman would target a place of worship.
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