Police have identified a 42-year-old man with multiple prior arrests as the violent nut who stabbed 11 people at a Walmart Superstore in Michigan on Saturday afternoon.
Bradford James Gille is in custody and awaiting arraignment on one count of terrorism and 11 counts of assault with intent to murder following the shocking stabbing spree in Traverse City, cops said.
Gille entered the big-box chain store around 4:43 p.m. and stabbed his victims using a folding knife, authorities said.
A picture of the knife Gille allegedly used was shared at a press briefing Sunday.
Authorities are “very confident” that Gille is the attacker, said Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea to media.
His victims range in age from 29 to 85, with six of them over 60, Shea said. They are all expected to survive.
Gille is from Afton, Mich, and was last listed as living in Cheboygan, about 80 miles northeast of Traverse City.
He has multiple past arrests for criminal mischief and drug offenses and previously served 49 days in jail in Florida in 2014 for vandalism.
Two possible self-published books by Gille and available on Amazon reveal him as a born-again Christian.
The author turned to prayer at age 14 in 1997 after the “unfortunate loss of one of my close friends,” the blurb on one of the books reads.
The book, which purports to be autobiographical, lays out how its author had dreams tracing his past lives back millions of years.
“Some of those New Testament dreams of mine portrayed me as Jesus Christ or God and him as Judas Iscariot,” the writer says.
In another book published in January last year, the author describes an apparent autobiographical account of his “astonishing revelation of his own identity as Jesus Christ and the spirit as Judas Iscariot.”
Within 3 minutes of Saturday’s attack, a sheriff’s deputy arrived and took Gille into custody.
Shea praised bystanders, including a man armed with a pistol, who helped to subdue Gille until authorities arrived.
“It’s not very often that we have citizens that are willing to step up and take action,” he said.
Gille remains in the Grand Traverse County Jail.
He is expected to be arraigned either Monday or Tuesday, authorities said.
