Michigan synagogue man attacked family members at Israeli airport in Lebanon, official says
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A gunman who stormed a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials say was an attack lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, an American citizen born in Lebanon, was killed by security after he stormed Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit and drove down the aisle in a car that caught fire, according to authorities.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest synagogues as an act of violence against the Jewish community.
The synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at its daycare center were not injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.
Ghazali came to the US in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a US citizen and was granted US citizenship in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
An Israeli airstrike killed four people in the eastern Lebanese city of Mashgharah on March 5, a Lebanese government agency and the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported. A woman was injured.
The negative effects of the Iran war have spread throughout the Middle East. Israel has stepped up its offensive in Lebanon following renewed strikes with the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
A local official in Mashgharah told the Associated Press that two of Ghazali’s brothers and his nephew were killed in their home in an airstrike shortly after sunset while they were having dinner during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The official, who asked not to be identified because he cannot publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told The Associated Press that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Ibrahim Ghazali’s wife was seriously injured and is still in hospital, said the official.
The official said Kassim Ghazali was a well-known football coach and coached his people while Ibrahim was a school bus driver in the area.
The official said Ayman Ghazali’s father was in the US and returned to Lebanon recently.
Minutes after the attack, smoke billowed from the synagogue. One policeman was hit by a car and knocked unconscious but did not have life-threatening injuries, said Bouchard. And 30 police officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
Cassi Cohen, director of strategic development at Temple Israel, was in the hallway where the accident happened. He explained that he heard a loud noise and said that he grabbed a number of employees, ran into his office and locked the door.
“When I heard the crash, I knew it was bad,” Cohen said.
He said the accident happened near the classroom and in addition to the children there were more than 30 workers in the synagogue.
Rabbi Arianna Gordon, of Temple Israel, thanked the security team, law enforcement and preschool teachers for getting the children out safely and reunited with their parents.
About 12 parents ran to get their children immediately after authorities cleared the building. Some families were reunited at a nearby Jewish community center.
Allison Jacobs, whose 18-month-old daughter is enrolled in childcare at Temple Israel, said she received a text from the teacher saying the children were fine before she knew what had happened.
“There are no words. I was full of panic,” he said.
Synagogues around the world have been on lockdown and tightening security since the US and Israel launched a missile war with Iran on Feb. 28.
The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California. Two men brought fireworks to a far-right protest outside a New York mansion on Saturday. Investigators say they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group.
And an attacker drove a car into people outside an Orthodox synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. He stabbed and killed two people before the police shot and killed him.
The suspected gunman who attacked a Detroit synagogue in a car has died, local authorities confirmed Thursday. The police did not reveal how the suspect died, but said the security guards shot at the suspect.
President Donald Trump said he had been fully briefed on the attack, which he said was “a terrible thing.”
Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, said Thursday: “I’d like to say I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not.”
The attack was the second at a Michigan synagogue in the past year. Last September, a former Marine shot and killed four people in a church north of Detroit and set it on fire. The FBI later said he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Oakland County is the second largest county in Michigan with a population of approximately 1.3 million. Most of the Jewish residents of the Detroit area live there. Temple Israel has 12,000 members, according to its website.
