The man accused of plowing into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday morning recently lost multiple family members in an Israeli strike on Lebanon.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, allegedly drove his truck filled with explosives and mortar shells into the Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, which also serves as a preschool, igniting a blaze.
One security guard was struck and injured by the vehicle, but everyone at the scene survived. The van caught fire and severely burned the suspect’s body. A ‘chemical agent’ was later found inside the vehicle.
It has since emerged that Ghazali was a naturalized US citizen from Lebanon who worked at a restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights.
The suburb’s mayor, Mo Baydoun, said Ghazali ‘lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.’
An unnamed source told CBS News said the attack by Israel was 10 days ago, and that two of Ghazali’s brothers were also killed.
Israel’s strikes followed the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which prompted renewed attacks by Hezbollah against Israel.
The unnamed CBS source added that Ghazali’s ex-wife said he phoned her shortly before the attack, asking her to take care of their children.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali is accused of smashing his vehicle into Temple Israel in Michigan
Police responded to the scene within five minutes of receiving a call about an active shooter
The suspect was neutralized by a security guard at the scene
‘He breached the building, drove down the hall, and he was engaged by security,’ Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said of the armed attacker. ‘We can’t say what killed him at this point, but security did engage the suspect with gunfire.’
Ghazali was born in Lebanon in 1985 and entered the United States through Detroit Metropolitan International Airport on May 10, 2011, after alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010, according to the New York Post
He then applied for naturalization on October 20, 2015 and became a citizen on February 5, 2016, under the Obama administration, the outlet said.
Federal authorities said at a news conference that they are probing it as a ‘targeted act of violence’ against the Jewish community.
No students or staff were injured in the attack, but a security guard was taken to the hospital after being struck by the vehicle. He is expected to recover.
Thirty law enforcement officers were also rushed to a local hospital for smoke inhalation, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said at the news conference.
‘When all of our people collectively went in that building to search out the threat, to remove innocent, a lot of them took in significant amount of smoke inhalation, and they’re at the hospital being treated,’ Bouchard said.
The synagogue ‘became engulfed’ in flames.
Parents carried their children away from the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on Thursday after a gunman drove a truck into the building
Families with children are escorted from the scene earlier today
Authorities said they then received a call about an active shooter at the synagogue at 12.19pm, and West Bloomfield police were at the scene within five minutes.
Photos shared online showed a large police presence on the scene with smoke coming out of windows and a vent on the roof.
Scores of police vehicles from neighboring departments, a SWAT team, bomb technicians and bomb-sniffing dogs also responded to the scene.
The synagogue is a reform Jewish place of worship that was open at the time of the attack. It has one of the largest congregations in the country.
One woman who spoke to WDIV, named Lisa, said that the preschool was in use at the time.
She told the outlet: ‘I’m scared to death for my friends, I’ve never seen anything like this. My first thought was the children.
‘Parents and grandparents are coming and they’re scared to death for their children. This is senseless, this is not okay.’
As she spoke, several adults could be seen embracing one another in tears.
Members of the FBI at the site of the attack in West Bloomfield, Michigan
Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter
First responders work the scene after a shooter drove a truck into Temple Israel synagogue
Soon after the attack, a spokesman for Michigan State Police said: ‘We are asking for community members to stay away from the area to allow for police response. Troopers are also increasing patrols at other places of worship in the district.’
Sheriff Bouchard said law enforcement had been on high alert since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran nearly two weeks ago.
‘We’ve been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, of this happening,’ he said. ‘So there was no lack of preparation.
The sheriff added: ‘All Jewish facilities in the area are going to have a lot of extra presence around it until we figure this out.’
The Jewish Federation of Detroit has advised all Jewish organizations in the area ‘to go into lockout protocol – nobody in or out of your building.’
FBI Detroit led an Active Shooter Attack Prevention and Preparedness (ASAPP) training for the clergy and staff of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in late January, nearly two months before Thursday’s attack.
‘The FBI course combines lessons learned from years of research and employs scenario-based exercises to help participants practice the decision-making process of the Run, Hide, Fight principles and take necessary actions for survival,’ the agency wrote in a post on X.
‘We appreciate them for having us. Our Division has partnered with many organizations in Michigan and is committed to protecting schools, workplaces, houses of worship, medical facilities, transportation centers, government facilities, other public gathering sites, and communities.’
Sheriff Bouchard has praised Temple Israel security for their response to the active shooter.
‘I’m deeply proud of the response not only from the security that was on site but also of all the police officers and the firefighters that are here now,’ she said.
‘Training certainly helped to mitigate what happened here today.
‘Everything that was supposed to happen, happened. Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.’
