DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — A Lebanese-born man who had learned a week earlier that four of his family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike in his native country, waited in his car outside a synagogue for two hours before ramming into the building where dozens of children were inside.
Authorities said Friday that Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, 41, crashed his car into Temple Israel outside Detroit on Thursday afternoon, then started firing his gun
through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard.
Following the attack Thursday, a person familiar with the matter speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said security guards in the building killed the gunman. Later, authorities said guards “neutralized” him. But Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said during a news conference Friday that ultimately Ghazali fatally shot himself after he got stuck in his vehicle and the engine caught fire. Officials later found large quantities of commercial grade fireworks and several jugs of a liquid believed to be gasoline.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues, located in suburban West Bloomfield Township north of Detroit, as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.
Runyan said that law enforcement didn’t have enough evidence to call the attack an act of terror at this time, but said that investigations were ongoing.
None of the 140 children, teachers and staff inside the synagogue were injured, authorities said.
The agency has not provided an exact motive for the attack. “We’re just 30 hours into this, and we’re letting the facts and evidence lead,” Runyan said.
Temple Israel had taken steps to prepare for an attack. Last summer, the synagogue announced it was hiring a former local police lieutenant as its full-time head of security to oversee its in-house, armed security guards. Earlier this year, its clergy and staff underwent active shooter prevention and preparedness training, according to a post on Temple Israel's Facebook page.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin during a news conference Friday praised Temple Israel’s private security for swiftly stopping the attack.
“If they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here with children gone,” Slotkin said.
Ghazali lived in a single-story brick home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of the synagogue. On Friday, the front window was boarded, the front door was padlocked and an Amazon package addressed to Ghazali sat on the porch.
“In the four years I’ve lived here, we never really got past pleasantries,” said Chadi Zreik, who lives two houses down. “We all got acquainted with him in the last 24 hours.”
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 on March 5 killed four people in the town of Mashgharah, Lebanese officials reported. Israel has stepped up attacks on the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon as the war with Iran has spread violence across the Middle East.
A local official in Mashgharah told the AP on Friday that the airstrike killed Ghazali’s two brothers, a niece and a nephew at their home 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. Their mother was seriously wounded and remains in the hospital, the official said.
Dearborn Heights and its larger neighbor, Dearborn, have some of the largest populations of Arab Americans in the U.S. Signs of the culture are everywhere, from restaurants to mosques.
Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun spoke to reporters Friday about Ghazali losing family members overseas.
“That grief is real and it's heartbreaking,” Baydoun said, "But there is never an excuse for violence, especially violence directed at a sacred space.'
Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News in Dearborn, said it’s common to hold a memorial service in the U.S. for someone who died overseas. “Sharing feelings always gives you comfort, whether in bad times or good times. You don’t feel like you’re alone,” Siblani said.
A flier last weekend promoted a service for Ghazali’s relatives at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights. The mosque’s leader, Imam Hassan Qazwini, said Friday he had seen Ghazi only once. He strongly condemned the synagogue attack, saying houses of worship should be spared from political violence.
“Islam forbids holding innocent people accountable for acts done by others,” Qazwini said in a text message to an AP reporter. “The unjustified Israeli attack on civilians in Iran and Lebanon gives no blank check to anyone attacking synagogues, civilians and peaceful communities.”
Synagogues around the world have been ramping up security since the U.S. and Israel launched missile strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.
At Temple Israel, a security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said. And 63 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
More than 600 law enforcement officers responded to the 911 calls on Thursday.
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.
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.
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White reported from Detroit. AP journalists Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
