CrossPointe Community Church church shooting suspect in Michigan identified as Brian Browning, of Romulus who had left cryptic messages on Facebook seemingly targeting the church weeks before.
A 31 year old man dressed in military style gear is alleged to have arrived during a Sunday morning church congregation in Michigan and opened fire in an attempted mass shooting.
Social media identified the alleged gunman as Brian Browning, of Romulus.
Before he was able to unleash his wrath, Browning was run over by a deacon driving a Ford F-150 truck in the parking lot, before being shot and killed by a security guard, Detroit News reported.
BREAKING: Active shooter run over with truck, shot and killed by security guard outside Wayne, Michigan church pic.twitter.com/BSwKkqtJic
— BNO News (@BNONews) June 22, 2025
Michigan church would be mass shooter arrived as 150 congregants were inside
The shooting unfolded around 11:15 a.m. local time at the CrossPointe Community Church in the Detroit suburb of Wayne, according to the Wayne Police Department.
Law enforcement sources said the suspect drove his Nissan truck into the church and opened fire, WXYZ reported.
The shooter is alleged to have fired multiple shots into the church, but did not enter the building, where it was estimated 150 people had gathered according to CrossPointe Community Church Senior Pastor Bobby Kelly Jr.
‘He was run over by one of our members who saw this happening when he was coming into church,’ said Pastor Kelly. ‘That gave our security guard enough time to act. His bravery likely saved many lives.’
The only reported casualty was the security guard who felled Browning, who was shot in the leg.
Cryptic Facebook messages days before attempted mass shooting
In the aftermath of the attempted mass shooting, police were reviewing a Facebook livestream of the CrossPointe Community Church service in which gunshots could be heard as members of the congregation are seen rushing to evacuate the sanctuary.
‘Get down,’ someone can be heard saying, as people began to scramble. ‘Everybody to the back. Please, everybody, come to the back,’ a different church leader then states, directing the group to the rear of the building.
According to pastor Bobby Kelly Jr., Browning was wearing military-style gear when he arrived at the church. Investigators also revealed that Browning had reportedly posted a cryptic photo on social media outside the church weeks prior to Sunday’s attack, prompting questions about whether the church had been the target of a planned attack.
On May 25, Brian Browning, 31, posted a cryptic message on his Facebook page that read, ‘Sometimes God will ‘subtly’ show you the signs,’ accompanied by an image of CrossPointe Community Church’s social media page.
Why did Michigan church shooter target CrossPointe Community Church?
An apparent Facebook post by Browning, three days later on May 28 with Browning purportedly standing in front of a church read, ‘have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them,‘ from the Book of Ephesians.
Another accompanying verse from, Like 12:3 read, ‘What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. You have not only lied to men, but have lied unto the Spirit of the Lord. His blood is on your hands,’ he posted while tagging CrossPointe Community Church in the post.
Then, on June 22, he returned to the church and attempted to carry out a mass shooting during a Sunday morning service.
Members of CrossPointe Community Church started a security team roughly a decade ago in response to violence committed at other places of worship around the United States, Pastor Kelly said, although the Wayne church had not received prior threats of violence.
‘We are sitting ducks to someone who wants to come and do harm,’ Kelly said.
The investigation into the shooting is ‘ongoing with multiple agencies on scene,’ with police stating that it will share more information in the evening of June 22.
