An armed man who allegedly rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue on March 12 has been identified as a naturalized United States citizen born in Lebanon, according to federal officials.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, was fatally shot by security officers after he drove through a hallway at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit in a vehicle that then caught fire, authorities said.
The Epoch Times' Rachel Roberts reports that none of the synagogue’s staff, teachers, or the 140 children at its daycare center were injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. He said the suspect was found dead inside his vehicle.
A security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Bouchard said. About 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young said Temple security officers “engaged the individual and neutralized the threat.”
Ghazali came to the United States in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The FBI is leading the investigation. Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Detroit office, described the incident as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
Rabbi Arianna Gordon from Temple Israel thanked the synagogue’s security team, police officers, and teachers for getting the children out safely, calling them the “true rock stars of the day.”
Synagogues around the world have increased security since the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28.
Police respond to the scene of a shooting and vehicle attack near Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., on March 12, 2026. Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP
Over the weekend, two people were arrested following an attack in which improvised explosive devices were thrown during a counterprotest of an anti-Islamist group’s protest in New York City. The New York Police Department said that two devices outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence could have injured or killed someone and that the suspects were inspired by the ISIS terrorist group.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the Michigan attack was a “terrible thing,” while Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said it was “heartbreaking.”
“I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in the Detroit area,” Trump said on March 12.
Jewish Federation of Detroit CEO Steven Ingber said on March 12 that his organization was trained and prepared for such an attack.
“I’d love to say that I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not,” he told reporters.
Law enforcement responds to a call at Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., on March 12, 2026. Corey Williams/AP Photo
The majority of Detroit-area Jewish residents live in Oakland County, Michigan’s second-largest county, with roughly 1.3 million residents. Temple Israel has more than 12,000 members, according to its website, and describes itself as “the nation’s largest Reform synagogue.”
Minutes after the attack, CNN’s Juliette Kayyem floated the idea that President Trump’s military actions against Iran triggered the violence.
She added, “one of them is going to be incitement, radicalization, in particular, as Islamic terrorist groups are utilizing the war like ISIS to go online and to lure people to violence … One, of course, what we’ve seen today attacks against the Jewish community and then, of course, attacks against Iranian Americans.”
“And so all of that is part of this horrible stew of terrorism and incitement that we live in now in a world online and in a world where violence is too prevalent. And so once again, the fact that the sheriff said two weeks, that’s not a coincidental two weeks,” Kayyem further blathered.
This was the second attack at a place of worship in Michigan within the past year. Last September, a former Marine, Thomas Jacob Sanford, allegedly shot four people dead at a church north of Detroit and set it on fire.