A truck rammed a Michigan synagogue with more than a hundred children inside. Here’s what we know

By Hanna Park, Nouran Salahieh, CNN

(CNN) — On a quiet Thursday morning in suburban Detroit, a pickup truck pulled into in the parking lot of a synagogue, as children and teachers inside went about their normal routines.

After sitting in the lot for more than two hours, the truck’s driver suddenly stepped on the gas pedal and rammed the vehicle through the front doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. The truck barrelled down a hallway and became wedged between the walls as gunfire erupted. The engine compartment caught fire, and the smell of smoke drifted through the building, which includes an early childhood education center.

Rabbi Arianna Gordon was inside when the noise echoed through the synagogue, followed by an order to shelter in place. “We did hear the sound of shooting. We smelled smoke,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The driver, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized US citizen born in Lebanon, died of a self‑inflicted gunshot wound after exchanging fire with security officers, investigators said. A security guard was injured and dozens of first responders were treated for smoke inhalation. The more than 100 children – all 5 and younger – who were in the building were uninjured, authorities said.

The FBI called it a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” But the motive, investigators cautioned, remains under investigation.

Across the country, Jewish institutions have operated under heightened security in recent years amid rising antisemitic threats, a concern that has been renewed as the US‑Israel war with Iran enters its third week.

Here’s what we know about the attack at Temple Israel:

How the attack unfolded

Ghazali drove his pickup truck into the synagogue’s parking lot around 10 a.m. and remained there until about 12:15 p.m., when he rammed the doors of the temple, striking a security guard as he forced his way inside, according to Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office.

The vehicle barreled through the entrance and down a hallway, traveling “all the way” into the facility, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. It became jammed between the hallway walls, trapping Ghazali inside.

From there, authorities said, Ghazali began firing through the windshield. A security officer returned fire through the rear window of the truck, Runyan said. A second security officer then exchanged shots with him from the front of the vehicle. At “some point during the gun fight,” Runyan said, Ghazali fatally shot himself.

During the chaos, the truck’s engine compartment caught fire. Two sources familiar with the matter said Ghazali’s body was badly burned.

Inside the truck, investigators found large quantities of “commercial grade fireworks” and several jugs of flammable liquid believed to be gasoline, Runyan said. Two days before the attack, Ghazali purchased $2,250 worth of fireworks from a Phantom Fireworks store in Livonia, Michigan, according to William Weimer, the company’s president and general counsel. A manager who assisted him described him as “jovial.”

During the attack, one of the temple’s lead security officers was hit by the vehicle and taken to the hospital for treatment but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Bouchard said.

A total of 63 first responders were treated at hospitals for smoke inhalation after entering the building to search for threats and evacuate people, Bouchard said Friday.

Who was the suspect?

Ghazali was born in Lebanon and came to the United States in 2011 on a visa as the spouse of a US citizen, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He became a naturalized citizen in 2016.

He lived in Dearborn Heights, a suburb of Detroit, and worked at a Middle Eastern restaurant there, an employee of the restaurant said.

Ghazali’s wife filed for divorce in August 2024, and it was finalized in March 2025, according to Wayne County court records.

He had no previous criminal history, no registered weapons and had never been the subject of an FBI investigation, Runyan said Friday.

Still, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said Ghazali appeared in federal government databases as having connections to “known or suspected terrorists” associated with Hezbollah in Lebanon. He is not listed as a member of Hezbollah himself.

Officials told CNN individuals known or suspected to be Hezbollah members were found in Ghazali’s phone contacts during an interview with Customs and Border Protection in 2019, though it is unclear who they were or the nature of those relationships.

A week before the attack in Michigan, the US‑Israel war with Iran reached Ghazali’s family in Lebanon. Iskandar Barakeh, the mayor of Mashghara, Lebanon, said Ghazali’s brothers, Kassim and Ibrahim, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5, along with Ibrahim’s children, Ali and Fatima. The brothers’ wives and Ghazali’s parents were injured, the mayor said.

Motive is under investigation

Authorities have stopped short of drawing firm conclusions about why the synagogue was targeted.

“Because we are only 30 hours into this active investigation, it would be irresponsible for me to speculate about his motive at this time,” Runyan said Friday.

“I don’t think anyone was necessarily more concerned in the last week or two than we have been for the last number of years,” said Temple Israel Rabbi Arianna Gordon, “and all of our security for that length of time has really reflected that we are fully aware of what the world looks like today for the Jewish community.”

The synagogue had been on high alert for potential violence in the weeks – and years – before the attack.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday there is a clear “nexus” between the Iran war and the attack, adding she thinks it is no coincidence the suspect targeted a synagogue named Temple Israel.

Teachers distracted children with songs

As the attack unfolded, staff members and teachers at the temple’s pre-K scrambled for safety.

“I heard a bang, which was a shot,” Cassi Cohen, the synagogue’s director of strategic development, told the Associated Press. She and other staff members barricaded themselves in her office until SWAT officers gave the all-clear.

Elsewhere in the building, teachers quickly gathered children and led them out of the building to safety.

While locked down in a neighbor’s garage, the children sang a version of “The wheels on the bus” about traveling to synagogue, lighting candles and celebrating the end of the week, according to Kaluzny.

“The teachers were trained and they followed their training and because they knew what to do and were able to do it, all of our kids came out happy and healthy,” Kaluzny said.

“We’d like to say it was a miracle. And in many ways, it really was a miracle. But it was only a miracle because of our unbelievable security staff and our teachers,” Kaluzny told CNN.

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CNN’s Emma Tucker, Elizabeth Wolfe, Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.