Man who attacked Michigan synagogue lost relatives in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, official says.
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials say was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit and driving down a hallway in a vehicle that then caught fire, according to authorities.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.
About 140 people — 106 children and more than 30 staff — were at the synagogue at the time of the attack, said Cassi Cohen, Temple Israel’s director of strategic development. None of them were injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.
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.
Whitmer urged Americans to “lower the rhetoric” amid what she called a rising wave of antisemitism. She said the children attending school at the synagogue were 5 and younger.
“This is targeting babies who are Jewish,” Whitmer said. “That is antisemitism at its absolute worst.”
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 and a niece and 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 U.S. 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. And 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
Cohen 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 missile strikes against Iran 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.
President Donald Trump called the attack a “terrible thing.”
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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This story has been corrected to show that about 140 people total were at the synagogue when it was attacked.
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Durkin Richer reported from Washington, D.C., and Mroue reported from Beirut, Lebanon. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.