A terrifying incident unfolded at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, when a man armed with a rifle launched an attack after crashing his vehicle into the synagogue. This alarming event has drawn the attention of federal authorities who are investigating it as a targeted assault.
Identified as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, the attacker was a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon. Ghazali ended his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot after wreaking havoc by driving his pickup truck into the synagogue and continuing his rampage down a hallway. In the ensuing chaos, shots were fired, and the vehicle subsequently caught fire, as reported by law enforcement officials.
The FBI is at the forefront of the investigation, characterizing the incident as an act of violence specifically aimed at the Jewish community. This attack targeted one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues, adding to the gravity of the situation.
Miraculously, no injuries were reported among the synagogue’s staff, teachers, or the 140 children attending its early childhood center, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. Despite the severity of the attack, the safety measures in place helped prevent any casualties.
During a news conference, Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of FBI Detroit, refrained from divulging further details regarding Ghazali’s motives, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation. However, she did provide insight into the sequence of events during this harrowing ordeal.
Jennifer Runyan, FBI Detroit’s special agent in charge, did not release more information at a Friday news conference on Ghazali’s motive, saying that the investigation is ongoing. She gave more detail on the timeline of the attack.
Ghazali drove into the parking lot of the synagogue at 9:58 a.m., parked and sat there for more than two hours. At 12:15 p.m., he drove through the parking lot and, at 12:19 p.m., into a door on the southeast corner of the building, hitting a security guard. One minute later, his vehicle became jammed in a hallway and he was unable to get out. Two security guards engaged in a firefight with him at the front and back of the vehicle. The engine compartment caught fire, and Ghazali suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his his head, Runyan said.
Officials later found large quantities of commercial grade fireworks and several jugs of a liquid believed to be gasoline.
Runyan declined to say whether Ghazali had previously visited the synagogue or why he attacked it. She also did not say whether any security guards had engaged with Ghazali during the two hours he sat in his vehicle in the parking lot.
Bouchard said that 605 law enforcement officers responded from 42 agencies. He said that 63 officers were taken to hospitals for smoke inhalation.
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, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
An Israeli airstrike killed four people in the eastern Lebanon town of Mashgharah on March 5, Lebanon’s state agency and the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. A woman was also wounded.
The ripple effects of the Iran war have spread across the Middle East. Israel has stepped up its attacks on Lebanon following renewed strikes with the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
A local official in Mashgharah told The Associated Press that Ghazali’s two brothers, a niece and a nephew were killed at their home in the airstrike just after sunset as they were having their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told the AP that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Ibrahim Ghazali’s wife was seriously wounded and remains in the hospital, the official said.
The official said that Kassim Ghazali was a well-known soccer coach and personal trainer, while Ibrahim was a school bus driver in the village.
The official said that Ayman Ghazali’s father was in the United States and returned to Lebanon recently.
In the minutes after the attack, smoke billowed from the synagogue. One security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Bouchard said.
Cassi Cohen, director of strategic development at Temple Israel, was in the hallway where the crash happened. She described hearing a loud bang and said she grabbed a few staff members, ran into her office and locked the door.
“When I heard the crash, I knew it was bad,” Cohen said.
She said the crash happened near a classroom and, in addition to the children, there were also more than 30 staff members in the synagogue.
Rabbi Arianna Gordon, from Temple Israel, thanked the security team, law enforcement and early childhood teachers for getting the children out safely and reunited with their parents.
About a dozen parents sprinted to get their children soon after authorities cleared the building. Other families were reunited at a nearby Jewish Community Center.
Allison Jacobs, whose 18-month-old daughter is enrolled in Temple Israel’s day care, said she got a message from a teacher saying the children were OK even before she knew what happened.
“There are no words. I was in complete and utter shock,” she said.
Synagogues around the world have been on edge and ramping up security 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. Two men brought explosives to a far-right protest outside the New York mayoral mansion on Saturday. Investigators allege they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group.
In October, an assailant drove a car into people outside an Orthodox synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. He stabbed two people to death before officers shot and killed him.
President Donald Trump said he had been fully briefed on the attack, calling it a “terrible thing.”
Steven Ingber, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, said Thursday: “I’d love to say that I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not.”
The attack was the second at a house of worship in Michigan within the past year. Last September, a former Marine fatally shot four people at a church north of Detroit and set it ablaze. The FBI later said he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Oakland County is Michigan’s second-largest county with roughly 1.3 million people. The majority of Detroit-area Jewish residents live there. Temple Israel has 12,000 members, according to its website.
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