Federal investigators searched the home of the man responsible for the violent attack on a synagogue and preschool in Michigan as authorities work to determine what led up to the incident.
Late Thursday night, FBI agents carried out a search at the Dearborn Heights residence of 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon. The search took place just hours after Ghazali drove a vehicle filled with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township and then began firing a rifle.
Images from the scene show federal agents moving through different rooms inside the home while others examined the outside of the property, including the garage area. Investigators carefully combed through the residence as part of the ongoing investigation.
Ghazali was killed during the attack after armed security personnel at the synagogue returned fire. Authorities say the assault began at about 12:20 p.m. when he crashed his vehicle into the building, which also houses a preschool, and started shooting.
The vehicle, believed to contain explosives such as mortar shells, caught fire during the incident. The flames left the suspect’s body severely burned inside the wrecked car.
Although the situation was chaotic and frightening, none of the roughly 140 children inside the temple’s preschool were hurt.
One of the synagogue’s head security guards was struck by the vehicle and briefly lost consciousness, but officials say he is expected to recover.
Around 30 police officers and emergency responders who entered the building to search for victims were later hospitalized for smoke inhalation after being exposed to heavy smoke inside the structure.
Investigators are looking into whether the attack was connected to a personal tragedy in Ghazali’s family. Officials say several of his relatives, including a niece and nephew, were reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike that struck their home in Machghara, Lebanon.
According to sources, the strike occurred about ten days before the Michigan attack and may have also killed two of Ghazali’s brothers.
Authorities also say Ghazali contacted his ex-wife shortly before the incident and told her to take care of their children.
Records show Ghazali was born in Lebanon in January 1985 and entered the United States through Detroit in May 2011 with an immigrant visa as the spouse of an American citizen. He later became a naturalized U.S. citizen on February 5, 2016, during the Obama administration.
Court documents indicate his ex-wife filed for divorce in Wayne County Circuit Court in August 2024, and the divorce was finalized seven months later. The couple had at least one child together.
Ghazali was employed at Hamido Restaurant, a Middle Eastern restaurant located in Dearborn Heights.
Federal authorities say the incident is being investigated as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. Temple Israel is located in Oakland County, an area with one of the largest Jewish populations in the country outside of the New York region.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said law enforcement agencies had already been preparing for possible violence due to growing tensions related to the conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
“We’ve been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, of this happening,” Bouchard said.
Police have since increased security at synagogues and other houses of worship throughout the region while the investigation continues.