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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a car ramming at a suburban Detroit synagogue as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” authorities said Thursday.
The driver, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, was shot and killed by security personnel after driving a vehicle into Temple Israel, officials said.
The synagogue was hosting a preschool session at the time, but no children or school staff were injured, authorities said.
Security stops attacker
Police said a 911 call reporting an active shooter situation came in around 12:19 p.m. Thursday.
Dale Young, the police chief for West Bloomfield Township, said security officers at the synagogue quickly confronted the driver.
“Temple security officers engaged the individual and neutralized the threat,” Young said at a news conference.
Officials said the suspect’s body was badly burned, and investigators are awaiting forensic confirmation of his identity.
Suspect identified as Michigan resident
Federal officials said Ghazali was a U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon who entered the United States in 2011 through Detroit on an immigrant visa as the spouse of an American citizen.
He later applied for naturalization in 2015 and became a U.S. citizen in 2016.
Authorities said Ghazali lived in the Detroit suburbs, according to Mo Baydoun, the mayor of Dearborn Heights.
Family killed in Israeli airstrike
Local Lebanese officials said Ghazali recently lost several family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
The strike reportedly killed two of his brothers as well as a niece and nephew, according to officials familiar with the situation.
The brothers were believed to have been affiliated with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group, though authorities said it remains unclear what role they held.
Investigators cautioned that a motive has not yet been confirmed.
“We don’t operate in a world where we can presume something,” said Mike Bouchard, the sheriff of Oakland County. “We have to determine it through investigation.”
Fire damages synagogue
Authorities said the vehicle crash triggered a fire that quickly spread through part of the building.
“That building became engulfed,” Bouchard said, noting the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The synagogue’s head of security was knocked down by the vehicle and taken to a hospital.
About 30 responding law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation following the blaze.
Children inside building at time of attack
Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, said 104 young children — ages 5 and under — were inside the temple’s early childhood center when the attack occurred.
Temple officials credited security personnel and emergency responders with preventing a larger tragedy.
Leaders condemn attack
Whitmer described the incident as an act of antisemitism.
“It was hate, plain and simple,” she said Friday morning. “We must lower the rhetoric in this state and in this country.”
Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan senator who said she grew up attending the synagogue, said the outcome could have been far worse without the quick actions of security staff.
“If they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here today,” Slotkin said.
Jewish community vows resilience
The attack comes amid rising incidents of antisemitism and escalating tensions in the Middle East linked to the ongoing conflict involving Israel, Iran and U.S. forces.
Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, said the community would not be intimidated.
“This is a tough time,” Ingber said. “But we will get through this together, stronger, and we will continue to be loud and proud of being Jewish.”
Temple Israel, founded in 1941, is one of the largest **Reform Judaism congregations in the region, with about 3,500 member families representing more than 12,000 people.
