A man rammed a car into a Michigan synagogue Thursday, starting a fire, in an incident that investigators are probing as a targeted attack on the Jewish community.
The perpetrator was found dead inside the car after security guards shot at him during the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a news conference. One security guard was injured, but children and staff inside the synagogue were not hurt, he said.
The FBI is investigating the attack as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the agency’s Detroit field office, told reporters.
Details about the attack were sparse Thursday, and a motive was unclear. Officials said there was no active threat to the community but did not identify the perpetrator, disclose whether he had a weapon or how the fire began, or say how he died.
Police initially issued a shelter-in-place order for all buildings within a mile of the synagogue as they investigated whether other people may have been involved. Schools and places of worship in the area went into lockdown. Runyan later said officials believed that there was only one perpetrator.
The injured security officer was knocked unconscious by the car and brought to a hospital, Bouchard said. Officials hailed the work of security guards at the synagogue who they said prevented additional harm.
“Everything that was supposed to happen happened,” Bouchard said at a news conference. “Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.”
In the two weeks since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Bouchard said, he has talked with law enforcement agencies in nearby jurisdictions that have Jewish houses of worship. He said he also texted Temple Israel’s head of security two days before the attack.
“Obviously, what happens around the world sometimes affects us, so we have to think about it and be prepared for it,” Bouchard said.
Police responded to the synagogue after receiving a 911 call about the attack around 12:19 p.m. Thursday. The perpetrator drove into a hallway after ramming into the building, Bouchard said, and the temple’s security officers engaged with him. Responding officers went inside wearing gas masks, and 30 officers were treated for smoke inhalation, Bouchard said.
The children inside the synagogue, which offers early-childhood education to 140 students, were evacuated and reunited with their families at a nearby Jewish community center, Bouchard said.
Federal agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the synagogue to help in the investigation.
In a statement posted after the attack, Temple Israel said it did not yet have details to share on the investigation or future services.
“We wanted you to know we are safe, and we love you all,” the synagogue wrote.
Temple Israel has more than 12,000 members and says on its website that it’s the nation’s largest Reform synagogue. It was founded in 1941 and operated in the Detroit area for decades before building its West Bloomfield synagogue in 1980.
The FBI’s Detroit field office led active-shooter training for Temple Israel in January. Officials did not say whether the perpetrator in Thursday’s attack fired a weapon.
The country has seen a spate of high-profile attacks against Jewish people, communities and their places of worship over the last two years, including an arson attack during Passover at the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who is Jewish; an incident in which molotov cocktails were thrown at a crowd gathered in Colorado to support Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip; and the fatal shooting of a young couple at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) on Thursday said she grew up near the synagogue and called the attack a “frightening event.”
“All communities deserve the right to worship safely,” she wrote on X. “All communities.”
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