The attack unfolded Thursday at Temple Israel, one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues, in West Bloomfield Township, a Detroit-area community. Federal officials said the person who rammed a vehicle into the synagogue was Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, and authorities said he was killed after security officers confronted him.
According to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Ghazali drove into the synagogue through a hallway, and security officers fatally shot him. Bouchard also said the vehicle caught fire after the crash. West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young said Temple security officers “engaged the individual and neutralized the threat,” describing the response inside the building.
The Department of Homeland Security said Ghazali came to the U.S. in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016. Federal officials and local law enforcement did not release information about a motive at the time of the news conference, with investigators still working to determine what drove the attack.
FBI Detroit field office special agent in charge Jennifer Runyan characterized the crime as targeted violence against the Jewish community and said the FBI is leading the investigation. “What drove this person into action has to be determined by the investigation,” Bouchard said. Authorities added that they had not identified motive and were continuing to gather information in the case.
Bouchard said none of Temple Israel’s staff, teachers or the 140 children at the synagogue’s early childhood center were injured. He said one security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, and he said 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
Temple Israel director of strategic development Cassi Cohen said she was standing near the hallway where the crash happened when she heard what she described as a loud bang. Cohen said she grabbed a few staff members, ran into her office and locked the door, and she said a classroom was near where the car entered. She said she also had the children’s ages in mind, explaining that the day care includes children as young as 4, and she noted more than 30 staff members were inside the building.
Rabbi Arianna Gordon thanked security officers, law enforcement and the early childhood teachers for getting the children out safely and said they were the “true rock stars of the day.” After authorities cleared the synagogue, parents raced to retrieve children who were inside. Cohen and other accounts described families being reunited at a nearby Jewish Community Center while the investigation continued.
Allison Jacobs, whose 18-month-old daughter was enrolled in Temple Israel’s day care, said she received a message from a teacher telling her the children were OK even before she knew what had happened. “There are no words. I was in complete and utter shock,” Jacobs said. She also reflected on broader fears, saying she was hoping the initial reports were false and noting that she had been mourning the school that was hit in Iran earlier that day.
Authorities and community leaders pointed to a wider pattern of heightened security at Jewish institutions since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran with missile strikes on Feb. 28. The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California, and authorities said other incidents involving explosives or vehicles had also been investigated in recent weeks. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement that Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice its faith in peace.
This was the second attack at a house of worship in Michigan within the past year. Last September, authorities said a former Marine fatally shot four people at a church north of Detroit and set it ablaze, and the FBI later said he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Temple Israel website says the synagogue has 12,000 members, and the Jewish Federation of Detroit briefly advised Jewish organizations in the area to lock down.