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A former wife told Dearborn Heights police in a 911 call that Ayman Ghazali was “suicidal,” according to a TV station report, as investigators review details around the attack on a Detroit-area synagogue. WXYZ-TV said the call came the day of the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, about 25 miles from Ghazali’s home.
WXYZ-TV reported that the 911 call to Dearborn Heights police came around the same time as Ghazali’s attack on Temple Israel and its early childhood learning center last Thursday. The report said the federal government later described Ghazali’s actions at the scene and his death inside the vehicle.
The FBI said Ghazali exchanged gunfire with a guard and killed himself while inside his vehicle, which also caught fire, the report said. According to WXYZ-TV, the federal agency said Ghazali waited in his vehicle outside the synagogue for about two hours before ramming the building where dozens of children were inside, and that no children were hurt.
WXYZ-TV said there was no indication in the 911 call that Ghazali’s ex-wife knew he had targeted the synagogue. In the recording, she told police, “I feel like he’s really upset,” and later described him as “like suicidal,” WXYZ-TV reported, saying her “voice is not stable” and that she “just want[ed] to make sure he’s OK.”
In the same report, WXYZ-TV said Ghazali’s ex-wife told police she did not know whether he had weapons. Dearborn Heights police went to Ghazali’s house but, WXYZ-TV reported, found no one there.
WXYZ-TV said the ex-wife told police that Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had lost family members during an Israeli airstrike on March 5 in Lebanon. The report said a memorial service for those relatives was held at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights.
The FBI’s Detroit office, which is investigating the synagogue attack, declined to comment on a description of Ghazali’s brother as a Hezbollah commander that Israel’s military said Sunday.