A Lebanese-born man who learned a week earlier that four of his family members — including two brothers who were reportedly Hezbollah operatives — were killed in an Israeli airstrike in his native country, waited in his car outside a synagogue for two hours before ramming into the building where dozens of children were inside.

Authorities said Friday that Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, 41, crashed his car into Temple Israel outside Detroit on Thursday afternoon, then started firing his gun through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard.

Following the attack Thursday, a person familiar with the matter speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said security guards in the building killed the gunman. Later, authorities said guards “neutralized” him. But Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said during a news conference Friday that ultimately Ghazali fatally shot himself after he got stuck in his vehicle and the engine caught fire. Officials later found large quantities of commercial grade fireworks and several jugs of a liquid believed to be gasoline.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, has described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues, located in suburban West Bloomfield Township north of Detroit, as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.

Runyan said that law enforcement didn’t have enough evidence to call the attack an act of terror at this time, but said that investigations were ongoing.

None of the 140 children, teachers and staff inside the synagogue were injured, authorities said.

The agency has not provided an exact motive for the attack. “We’re just 30 hours into this, and we’re letting the facts and evidence lead,” Runyan said.

Temple Israel had taken steps to prepare for an attack. Last summer, the synagogue announced it was hiring a former local police lieutenant as its full-time head of security to oversee its in-house, armed security guards. Earlier this year, its clergy and staff underwent active shooter prevention and preparedness training, according to a post on Temple Israel’s Facebook page.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and US Senator Elissa Slotkin during a news conference Friday praised Temple Israel’s private security for swiftly stopping the attack.

“If they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here with children gone,” Slotkin said.

From south Lebanon to Dearborn Heights

Ghazali lived in a single-story brick home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of the synagogue. On Friday, the front window was boarded, the front door was padlocked and an Amazon package addressed to Ghazali sat on the porch.

“In the four years I’ve lived here, we never really got past pleasantries,” said Chadi Zreik, who lives two houses down. “We all got acquainted with him in the last 24 hours.”

Ghazali came to the US in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a US citizen and was granted US citizenship in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

An Israeli airstrike on March 5 killed four people in the town of Mashgharah, Lebanese officials reported. Israel has been carrying out extensive airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Israel Defense Forces has pushed further into the south of the country on the ground, after the Iran-backed terror group started firing hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel on March 2, in response to US-Israeli attacks on the Iranian regime.

A local official in Mashgharah told the AP on Friday that the airstrike killed Ghazali’s two brothers, a niece and a nephew at their home just after sunset as they were having their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told the AP that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Their mother was seriously wounded and remains in the hospital, the official said.

An unnamed official told NBC News Ghazali’s brothers were known to be members of Hezbollah, while a local journalist in Lebanon told CBS News that the pair were operatives in a Hezbollah rocket unit in southern Lebanon.

Sources told CNN that Ghazali had been flagged in US government databases for connections to members of Hezbollah, but was not thought to be a member of the terror group.

JUST IN – DHS confirms Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese-born naturalized U.S. citizen, as suspect who rammed an explosives-packed truck into Temple Israel synagogue. pic.twitter.com/qCYWYYZ402 — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 13, 2026

JUST IN – DHS confirms Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese-born naturalized U.S. citizen, as suspect who rammed an explosives-packed truck into Temple Israel synagogue. pic.twitter.com/qCYWYYZ402

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 13, 2026

However, a source familiar with the matter told NBC that US investigators were looking into possible ties between Ghazali and members of Hezbollah, and said that the synagogue attacker had been questioned on the matter on a number of occasions upon his return from overseas trips.

A Michigan mosque held a service for his relatives

Dearborn Heights and its larger neighbor, Dearborn, have some of the largest populations of Arab Americans in the US Signs of the culture are everywhere, from restaurants to mosques.

Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun spoke to reporters Friday about Ghazali losing family members overseas.

“That grief is real and it’s heartbreaking,” Baydoun said, “But there is never an excuse for violence, especially violence directed at a sacred space.”

Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News in Dearborn, claimed it’s common to hold a memorial service in the US for someone who died overseas. “Sharing feelings always gives you comfort, whether in bad times or good times. You don’t feel like you’re alone,” said Siblani, who has hailed Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas as “freedom fighters.”

A flier last weekend promoted a service for Ghazali’s relatives at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights. The mosque’s leader, Imam Hassan Qazwini, said Friday he had seen Ghazi only once. He strongly condemned the synagogue attack, saying houses of worship should be spared from political violence.

“Islam forbids holding innocent people accountable for acts done by others,” Qazwini said in a text message to an AP reporter.

“The unjustified Israeli attack on civilians in Iran and Lebanon gives no blank check to anyone attacking synagogues, civilians and peaceful communities,” added Qazwini, who has previously praised former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and denounced Israel as “this tyrannical enemy,”

Synagogues and other houses of worship on edge

Synagogues around the world have been ramping up security since the US and Israel launched missile strikes against Iran on February 28, with numerous Jewish houses of worship around the world targeted so far this month.

At Temple Israel, a security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said. And 63 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.

More than 600 law enforcement officers responded to the 911 calls on Thursday.

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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