The man suspected of ramming a car into a Michigan synagogue Thursday had family members who were killed in an Israeli attack on Lebanon this month, officials said. The crash, which started a fire at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, is being investigated as a targeted attack on the Jewish community.
The Department of Homeland Security identified the perpetrator as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, and said he came to the United States from Lebanon in 2011 as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016.
Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said in a Facebook post late Thursday that the suspect was a resident of the city. Several of Ghazali’s loved ones, including his niece and nephew, were killed in an Israeli attack on their home, Baydoun wrote.
“No matter where violence occurs, whether in West Bloomfield or anywhere around in the world, harm against innocent people is something we must all stand firmly against,” he wrote. “The tensions we see across the world too often find their way into our own neighborhoods, reminding us how deeply connected our shared safety is.”
The perpetrator was found dead inside the car after security guards shot at him during the attack, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a news conference Thursday, without naming him. 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 on Thursday.
Officials said there was no active threat to the community but did not disclose whether the man had a weapon or how the fire began, or say how he died.
“Yesterday’s attack was antisemitism. It was hate, plain and simple,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Friday at a news conference. “We will fight this ancient and rampant evil, we will stand together as we do it and we will call it out.”
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 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. It’s one of North America’s largest Reform Jewish congregations, with Shabbat services attracting more than 1,000 people, Whitmer said. 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) praised first responders at Friday’s news conference.
“I think it’s clear that if it were not for the private security and the staff at Temple Israel, and then the first responders first on the scene, local law enforcement, if they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here today, with children gone,” she said.
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