TOLEDO, Ohio — In the span of a week, two separate mass shootings in Michigan and North Carolina left seven people dead — and in both cases, police identified the suspects as military veterans.
The violence has renewed conversations nationwide about the challenges some veterans face after returning to civilian life and the importance of accessible mental health care.
In Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, authorities say 40-year-old Thomas Sanford, a former Marine, killed four people and then set a church on fire before he was shot and killed by police. A day earlier, investigators in Southport, North Carolina, said another former Marine, 40-year-old Nigel Edge, shot and killed three people from a boat inside a pub…