WEST BLOOMFIELD — The suspect is dead and no congregants were injured after an attacker drove a vehicle into a metro Detroit synagogue and was confronted by security officers on Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.
The attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, a major Jewish place of worship that also houses an early childhood learning center, sparked international condemnations of antisemitism, shook the local community and prompted other area schools and synagogues to take precautionary measures.
The FBI is leading an investigation into the attack, which is believed to be “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the Detroit field office, said Thursday evening.
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She declined to provide information about the suspect or his potential motives, citing a need to “protect the integrity of this investigation.”
Federal officials later identified the attacker as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized citizen born in Lebanon.
Ghazali was a resident of Dearborn Heights, Mayor Mo Baydoun confirmed late Thursday.
“Earlier this month, he lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon,” Baydoun wrote on social media.
“Everyone deserves to worship in peace, and we must unequivocally condemn any attack on a house of worship or the people within it.”
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard confirmed that the suspect was killed and said a security guard who was hit by the attacker’s vehicle and knocked unconscious “should be OK.” Later, he said 30 law enforcement officers were also taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation after the suspect’s vehicle caught fire.
“We’ve been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, for this happening, so there was no lack of preparation,” the sheriff told reporters.
Bouchard said the attacker died after driving through the facility’s doors and down a hall, where on-site security officers “engaged him in gunfire.” At some point in that sequence, Bouchard said, “something ignited in the vehicle,” setting it ablaze.
Because of the fire, it’s not yet clear how the suspect died, Bouchard said. “In situations like this, you never know. Somebody’s trapped. Sometimes they kill themselves. So the suspect was engaged — is the clearest sentence I can give.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said federal authorities were on the scene, and Bouchard said the FBI will likely lead the investigation moving forward, “based on some of the preliminary investigative information we have.”
He declined to comment further on the significance of FBI involvement, but added that “we want to assure the community it doesn’t appear to be anything active.”
The Associated Press, citing an anonymous source familiar with the investigation, reported that the suspect who rammed the synagogue was armed with a rifle. According to CNN, emergency responders found what appeared to be explosives in the back of the vehicle.
A motive is not yet known. The attack unfolded amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, where the US and Israel are battling Iran. It came roughly five months after a fatal attack at a Mormon church in Grand Blanc.
Temple Israel is known as one of the largest Reform congregations in the United States, serving about 3,400 families.
In a Thursday evening social media post, Temple Israel said “everyone is safe” at the synagogue, including 140 students in the early childhood learning center, staff, teachers and “heroic” security personnel.
“As you have no doubt heard, Temple Israel was the victim of a terrorist gunman who was confronted and neutralized by our security personnel who are truly heroes,” the synagogue said. “Our teachers followed their training and kept the children safe and calm.”
“There’s so much that we don’t know,” Rabbi Arianna Gordon said in a subsequent press briefing. “We’re going to be processing all of this in the days and weeks to come.”
‘They were all on alert’
As of Thursday afternoon, authorities were working to determine whether more than one attacker was involved, while bomb dogs were on-site as officials investigated the vehicle for any presence of explosives.
“We haven’t actually gone into the car,” Bouchard said mid-afternoon. “It’s still being cleared.”
Behind him, the area around the building remained packed with police cars, fire trucks, medical squads and SWAT vehicles. Inside, investigators continued to clear the area, assisted by bomb-detecting dogs while parents reunited with their children.
At least 80 police cars from surrounding municipalities had responded to the attack, lining Walnut Lake Road for about one mile. The temple is about a half-mile from the West Bloomfield Police Department.
A text alert sent out to some area residents at around 12:40 p.m. indicated there was an “active shooter” at the West Bloomfield temple and advised all local schools and houses of worship to shelter in place.
Parents who were waiting to pick up children from the learning center attached to the synagogue were able to reunite with them across the street at Shenandoah Country Club around 1:20 p.m.
Bouchard said the West Bloomfield police chief had been in close contact with area religious institutions in recent weeks, including communicating directly with the head of security at Temple Israel.
“There was no specific chatter about any institution or facility in Oakland County, but they were all on alert,” Bouchard said.
“There was communication, there was extra patrol, extra attention, extra warnings, that had all happened for the weeks leading up to this,” the sheriff added during a mid-afternoon press conference, in which he sought to reassure the public that the situation had been contained.
“The team inside that building was very queued up,” he said.
‘This is heartbreaking’
In a Thursday afternoon statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer thanked law enforcement for the swift response and said she was working with Michigan State Police to get more information about the situation.
“This is heartbreaking,” the governor said. “Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace. Antisemitism and violence have no place in Michigan. I am hoping for everyone’s safety.”
President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the Temple Israel attack and called it a “terrible thing.”
“I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community,” he said before an unrelated White House event.
Beth Swis, a 54-year-old from Sylvan Lake, was dropping off some medical documents at nearby Henry Ford West Bloomfield when she drove past the synagogue and nearly hit someone who had raced into the road, apparently a parent.
The woman’s face, Swis told Bridge, had a look “of horror, like in New York after 9-11.”
Swis called her mother as she sat in her Buick while police cars and emergency groups flooded the area. “We prayed for comfort for anyone who was inside the building,” she said, calling herself a Christian. “We prayed for the police and wisdom,”
Standing outside in a knot of reporters and emergency crews as red and blue lights blinked and flashed around the synagogue and learning center, Swis shook her head.
Leaders in her own church have been talking about precautionary measures “that would stop bullets,” she said. “It’s just nuts. Unbelievable, and just nuts.”
A Facebook post from Temple Israel indicated staff had participated in FBI-led active shooter training just weeks ago. Bouchard said area law enforcement had also been preparing for a possible threat.
“We’ve been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, for this happening,” he said. “So there was no lack of preparation.”
He added that all Jewish facilities in the area are “going to have a lot of extra” law enforcement presence in light of today’s events.
‘Our worst nightmare’
The Jewish Federation of Detroit said Thursday afternoon that “our Jewish agencies are currently in precautionary lockdown. We ask community members to stay away from the area at this time.”
“We’ll get through this stronger, and we’ll continue to be loud and proud of being Jewish,” federation CEO Steven Ingber said later Thursday “This will not change us. This will not deter us.”
State Rep. Samantha Steckloff, D-Farmington Hills, attends Temple Israel and told Bridge she and a fellow lawmaker are “working diligently with all of our police departments” on the situation.
State Rep. Samantha Steckloff, D-Farmington Hills, attends Temple Israel and told Bridge she and a fellow lawmaker were “working diligently with all of our police departments” on the situation.
State Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, said that growing up at Temple Israel shaped him into the person he is today and called the attack “our worst nightmare.”
In a social media post, he urged people to condemn antisemitism, which he called “a crisis” that is “metastasizing.”
Officials in other cities and states also announced they were increasing patrols at houses or worship, schools and Jewish cultural institutions out of “an abundance of caution” following the West Bloomfield attack.