Daughters of man murdered in Michigan church forgive shooter in emotional letter

A makeshift memorial of flowers sits on the street next to police tape near the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 29 following a shooting and fire in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. Four people were killed and eight wounded. (michigan-church-shooting-victim-daughter-letter via CNN Newsource)

Lisa Louis was holding her dying father when she looked up, directly into the face of his murderer.

“The only way I can describe it is I saw into his soul,” Louis wrote in a letter posted to Facebook on Monday.

Her father, Craig Hayden, was one of four people killed by the shooter – identified as Thomas Sanford – who drove a vehicle into the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, Sunday, spraying bullets and setting fire to the building before he was killed by police.

But Louis’ letter contains a message that goes far beyond her recollection of the horrifying minutes during Sunday’s attack.

“I forgave him,” she added. “I forgave him right there, not in words, but with my heart.”

Julie Green, Louis’ sister who posted the handwritten letter, composed in pencil on a single piece of paper, echoed her sentiment.

“I prayed for the man that took my father’s life and I told him he is forgiven,” Green said.

Immediate forgiveness – a message of letting go of the anger that comes with being so terribly wronged – has a familiar sound to those who have been following a frighteningly violent news cycle.

The church massacre came barely a week after Erika Kirk had a similar message for the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

“That man – that young man – I forgive him,” Kirk said, to tens of thousands of people at her husband’s memorial on September 21.

CNN has reached out to Hayden’s family for comment.

Victim’s daughter believes shooter ‘felt lost’

The Grand Blanc attack was among more than 300 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. CNN and the GVA define a mass shooting as one that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter.

While police have not publicly commented on a motive for the Grand Blanc shooting, friends of Sanford say he expressed hatred for the LDS church, apparently inspired by a soured relationship with a girlfriend in Utah.

A grandfather and Navy veteran was among those shot and killed. John Bond was “a well known and loved member of his family and active in his community,” who loved spending time with his grandkids, a GoFundMe page created by his family says. Other victims of the attack, including children, have not been publicly identified.

But during Sanford’s killing spree, Louis saw something else in him, she wrote.

“I saw into his soul, and he saw into mine. He let me live.”

“I never took my eyes off his eyes, something happened, I saw pain, he felt lost,” she wrote. “I deeply felt it with every fiber of my being.”

Her father, Hayden, was 78 and was was married for over 50 years, the family says in a GoFundMe page, which has already raised nearly three times its goal.

Family encourages forgiveness over anger

Green said on Facebook her sister’s forgiveness inspired her own.

“I always wondered how people were able to forgive the person that caused harm to another human that they loved but I can tell you first hand it actually is very easy,” Green wrote.

Leaders in the LDS church also are encouraging their followers to respond to the massacre with peace.

“I’ve not detected any bitterness,” said David Bednar – a member of the church’s worldwide governing body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles – in a message posted by the denomination Tuesday. “Certainly sorrow, but no bitterness, no resentment.”

The message of Louis was not just for the man who took her father’s life. She said anyone consumed by hate and anger can change.

“Fear breeds anger, anger breeds hate, hate breeds suffering,” Louis wrote.

“If we can stop the hate we can stop the suffering,” she added. “But stopping the hate takes all of us.”