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WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — Authorities are working diligently to uncover the motive behind a violent incident at a prominent Michigan synagogue, which federal officials have linked to a 41-year-old naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon.
Officials reported that Ayman Mohamad Ghazali was fatally shot by security personnel after he crashed his vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, near Detroit. The vehicle, which Ghazali drove through a synagogue hallway, subsequently caught fire.
The FBI is spearheading the investigation, classifying the attack on this major Reform synagogue as a deliberate act of aggression against the Jewish community.
Fortunately, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard confirmed that no harm came to the synagogue’s staff, teachers, or the 140 children attending its early childhood center.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Ghazali arrived in the United States in 2011 on an immediate relative visa, having married a U.S. citizen. He obtained U.S. citizenship in 2016.
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.
Cassi Cohen, director of strategic development at Temple Israel, 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 a war with Iran with missile strikes 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.
And an assailant drove a car into people outside an Orthodox synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. He stabbed two people to death before officers shot and killed him.
President Donald Trump said he had been fully briefed on the attack, calling it a “terrible thing.”
Steven Ingber, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, said Thursday: “I’d love to say that I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not.”
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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