Officials ID Michigan attacker, say family died in Israel bombings

The Department of Homeland Security identified the man who drove a truck into a Detroit-area synagogue on Thursday as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali. The Lebanese national drove a truck into Temple Israel synagogue and started shooting once inside, officials say. He was later found dead inside the vehicle. The 41-year-old had legally entered the United States in 2011 and received a IR1 visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, a DHS spokesperson told WORLD in a Friday morning statement. Ghazali eventually received full naturalized citizenship in 2016 under the Obama administration, DHS said.

Do we know the attacker’s motive? The man responsible for the attack recently lost several family members from Israeli bombings in the Middle East, according to a Thursday night statement from Dearborn Heights, Mich., Mayor Mo Baydoun. The mayor reported Ghazali as a Dearborn Heights resident and claimed that several of Ghazali’s family members, including his niece and nephew, had died during Israeli strikes in Lebanon earlier this month. The mayor also condemned the synagogue attack and said all people deserve to worship safely.

The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, Jennifer Runyan, declined to comment on the attacker’s motives during a Thursday evening press conference. But she described the attack as targeted violence against the Jewish community and said the FBI would lead the investigation.

Any updates on injuries? At the press conference, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard confirmed that no students or staff were injured during the incident. Bouchard described several injuries among security officers, including the temple’s head of security being knocked down by the truck. The officer was treated at the hospital and expected to make a full recovery, he said. A fire started inside the truck and engulfed the vehicle, causing about 30 officers to suffer smoke inhalation while trying to search and evacuate the building, Bouchard said. The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for an end to radical rhetoric during a Friday morning press conference. U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., appeared alongside Whitmer and insisted anti-Semitism from all political sides needed to end. Slotkin cited her personal connection to the incident, noting that she grew up at Temple Israel.

WORLD reached out to the FBI for comment and did not receive an immediate response. 

Dig deeper: Read my initial report on the Thursday synagogue attack.