The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect in the attack on Temple Israel in Michigan.
The suspect, who is dead, is Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon. From Fox News:
Ghazali first entered the U.S. in 2011 and was later naturalized into a U.S. citizen in 2016 during the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News. He lived near Dearborn, Michigan.Officials said he entered the U.S. on May 10, 2011, at Detroit Metropolitan International Airport on an IR1 immigrant visa, as the spouse of a U.S. citizen.Alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010, according to DHS. He applied for naturalization on Oct. 20, 2015, and was granted U.S. citizenship on Feb. 5, 2016, under the Obama administration.
The Detroit News reported that Ghzali’s wife filed for divorce in 2024. The couple had at least one child.
The system granted the divorce in March 2025.
The Detroit News also reported that sources claimed Ghazali lost four relatives in Lebanon in recent air strikes.
Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun confirmed the deaths of family members.
However, Temple Israel Rabbi Jen Lader criticized anyone who uses those deaths to justify Ghazali’s actions:
“My thoughts are that any relationship that — that any news organization or anyone is — is talking about in terms of [the suspect’s] family’s loss of life — which is a tragedy in and of itself — any connection to an attack on an American synagogue in the suburbs of metro Detroit is intensely anti-Semitic and inappropriate and and that’s something that — that we’ve all been been dealing with too, that you know, using that as an excuse for why somebody might have come after a group of American Jews in Detroit. That’s anti-Semitism at its — at its — at its peak, and — and we’re hoping that that is not the story that people ar telling. And instead, the story is that that American Jews shouldn’t have to live this way in fear to send their children to preschool.”
The FBI searched Ghazali’s home overnight.
On Thursday afternoon, Ghazali rammed his truck into Temple Israel, proceeding to speed down the hallway.
“I mean, he was traveling with purpose down the hall from my look at the video,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
Bouchard confirmed that Temple Israel’s security engaged Ghazali with gunfire.
The car also caught on fire:
“Something ignited in the vehicle. That’s a work in progress. We’re — through an abundance of caution — clearing the vehicle for IEDs or any explosives. We’ve got a significant number of bomb dogs on site, bomb techs on site, and all of that’s going to be done to check the boxes. We have deployed resources all across the county, just in case, out of an abundance of caution that there may be a secondary site, but we don’t have any information at this time to believe that, so we want people to take a breath. No one was hurt. We’re on top of it. Chief and his team got here fast. Everything that was supposed to happen happened. Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.”“[The call] came out as an active shooter.”“The vehicle’s in the hallway of the building. It’s inside the building.”“Again, I can’t tell you what he died of until we get a little further. We haven’t actually gone into the car. It’s a — it’s still being cleared.”
Bouchard told the media that 30 first responders received treatment for smoke inhalation due to smoke “engulfing” the area of the attack.
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