U.S. authorities said Monday that the man who drove a pickup truck into a Michigan synagogue earlier this month carried out what the FBI described as a "Hezbollah-inspired" terrorist attack aimed at the Jewish community.
Investigators said the suspect, 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, had researched synagogues and other Jewish sites, bought an AR-style rifle, magazines and ammunition, practiced at a shooting range and purchased more than $2,200 worth of fireworks.
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Law enforcement at the scene of the attack on Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan
(Photo: AP Photo/Corey Williams)
He also searched phrases such as “largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan” and “Israelis near me,” according to the FBI.
The March 12 assault targeted Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, a Detroit suburb with one of the largest Jewish congregations in the United States. Officials said Ghazali sat in the parking lot for hours before driving his Ford F-150 through the building’s doors and into a hallway near the preschool area, hitting a security guard.
After the truck became lodged inside, he opened fire and exchanged gunfire with security personnel before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. No one inside the synagogue was hurt, including roughly 140 to 150 children and staff members who were in the building at the time.
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Sooty hallways after attack on Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan
(Photo: Emily Elconin, Temple Israel)
The synagogue and its schools were evacuated after the vehicle rammed the building and caught fire. Dozens of law enforcement officers were later treated for smoke inhalation.
At a news conference Monday, FBI Detroit chief Jennifer Runyan called the assault “a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.”
She said investigators found videos, photos and messages in which Ghazali embraced vengeance and Hezbollah’s ideology. On the day of the attack, she said, he sent his sister 19 videos, photos and messages reaffirming his intent to carry out what the FBI described as a mass terror attack.
The case had already drawn attention in Israel after officials said one of Ghazali’s brothers, Ibrahim Ghazali, was a Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon days earlier.
ABC reported that two brothers and several other relatives were killed in the March 5 strike, while AP said U.S. intelligence officials had also cited family ties to a Hezbollah leader. Ghazali reportedly posted images of dead relatives and of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei before the attack