Family of Michigan synagogue suspect killed in Lebanon airstrike, officials say. 9 hours ago. Helena HumphreyWest Bloomfield, Michigan. Nardine Saad. The man who rammed his truck into a synagogue in Michigan on Thursday had recently lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, officials say.. Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said that the suspect, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, recently suffered “devastating and personal losses overseas” but that it was “not an excuse” for the attack.. On Friday, the FBI said Ghazali died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head during a gunfight with police.. They also said he had large quantities of commercial-grade fireworks and several jugs of flammable liquid in the bed of his truck, which ignited during the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, near Detroit.. No staff or children at the synagogue and its attached school were hurt. A security guard was being treated for injuries and was expected to recover, law enforcement said, and officers are being treated for smoke inhalation.. Ghazali, who had no criminal history or registered weapons, waited in his truck for about two hours before the attack, and fired at security guards through his windshield, the FBI told reporters in a Friday evening press conference.. The FBI is investigating the incident at Temple Israel as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.. Although a motive remains unclear, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said earlier in the day that the attack was antisemitism and “hate, plain and simple”.. Rabbi Jen Lader, of Temple Israel, who was at a nearby community centre moments after the incident, described the moments after the attack as “sheer terror”.. “American Judaism is such these days that every synagogue is a target. Every synagogue is aware that we need to take precautions to keep our people safe,” she told the BBC, adding that the temple had trained in preparation for similar incidents.. “It’s a nightmare that we have to have an armed full-time security team in order for people to feel safe coming to synagogue,” she said.. Ghazali was a resident of Dearborn Heights, adjacent to the first Arab-majority city in the US.. Mayor Baydoun said his actions “do not reflect our values as a city. This is not who we are. There is never an excuse for violence, especially violence directed at a sacred space”.. The BBC’s US media partner, CBS News, reported that Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalised US citizen who was born in Lebanon and came to the US in 2011, lost two brothers, and his niece and nephew in the strike in early March.. Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit field office, said on Friday evening that “it would be irresponsible to speculate about his motive at this time” because the active investigation is only 30 hours old.. Runyan confirmed that there are no new known threats to the communities and that the incident has no connection to a shooting at Old Dominion University in the state if Vir
