NEW: Witnesses Of Church Attack Give Chilling First-Hand Accounts

Parishioners at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, were gathered in prayer on Sunday when Thomas Sanford, 40, drove a pickup through the building’s front doors and opened fire, killing at least four.

The body count grew later in the day as emergency workers excavated bodies from the wreckage left behind when the building caught fire in what witnesses described as a horrifying face-to-face encounter with evil.

Sanford, a former Marine veteran who served in Iraq, was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police officers.

Kristin Juarez became separated from her husband as the crack of gunshots caused the congregation to break apart and flee in all directions. She found herself barricaded in a bathroom, expecting to die.

“I thought, ‘If I have to die, it’s OK,’” Juarez, 54, said. “I feel good about where I am. And then I heard my husband’s voice, and he was calling for me.”

Her husband, John Juarez, 57, enlisted himself to carry a gunshot victim out of the LDS church and to safety. He returned to rescue another victim.

“I didn’t know what I could do for him,’’ he recalled. “I couldn’t get him out on my own.’’

That’s when he called for his wife, who answered. The couple fled out a back door and hid in a ditch as the gunfire subsided.

Brian Taylor, another chuchgoer, said the noise of Sanford’s truck striking the building appeared at first to be a giant accident.

“We heard a large, just a large bang,” he said, according to WJBK.

Members of the church rushed to try and assist the truck’s occupant before they realized he was there to kill. Taylor and his wife made it to their car but were targeted by gunfire. He displayed a cut on his right hand where debris from the windshield had struck him.

“None of us recognized this guy,” Taylor said, according to WJBK. “He came [inside] in camo pants and [with] an assault rifle.”

The shooting took place just before communion, the Western Journal reported.

“We started rushing out to go help, and as soon as I saw the American flags on the truck, and somebody yelled it was on purpose, I tried to get people out of the area and disperse away,” he said.

Paul Kirby told the NYT he ran outside to see what caused the initial impact. That’s when the 38-year-old became paralyzed by “extreme fear” as he was “just waiting for that hit” by the gunman, only 10 to 20 yards away.

Police are working to understand the motive of Sanford, who reportedly started the fire with an accelerant, likely gasoline.