The FBI is investigating a car ramming attack on a large Detroit-area synagogue Thursday as a "targeted act of violence against the Jewish community," the special agent in charge for the region said.
The Department of Homeland Security said the driver was Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon.
Ghazali lost several family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to a local Lebanese official and a mayor in Michigan.
Numerous federal and state law enforcement officials said that while they believe Ghazali is the alleged attacker, they are awaiting forensics to confirm the identity because the driver's body is so badly burned.
The driver was killed by security at Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, officials said. A preschool was in session at the temple, which is in a suburb around 30 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, but no children or school staff members were injured, officials said.
West Bloomfield Township Police Chief Dale Young said a 911 call at 12:19 p.m. reported "an active shooter situation at Temple Israel where the individual drove into the building."
"Temple security officers engaged the individual and neutralized the threat," Young said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
West Bloomfield Township Supervisor Jonathan Warshay told NBC News in a statement that he is "thankful for the courage and professionalism of our first responders."
"The Temple Israel security staff took swift action to prevent civilian casualties," Warshay said. "Our thoughts are with the members of Temple Israel and their families. No community should ever feel unsafe gathering in a house of worship or attending school."
Warshay, who is also a member of Temple Israel, added that town leaders are continuing to work closely with law enforcement and community leaders.
DHS said Ghazali was born in Lebanon and entered the U.S. via Detroit on May 10, 2011. He entered on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen after "alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010," it said.
He applied for naturalization in October 2015 and was granted citizenship in February 2016, DHS said.
Ghazali was originally from Mashghara, a town in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. Israeli airstrikes on the town in the country’s south last week killed two of Ghazali’s adult brothers, as well as Ghazali’s niece and nephew, the Lebanese official told NBC News.
The two brothers were known to be members of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group, the official said. But it was unclear what role they played in the organization or whether they were the target of the strike.
Mo Baydoun, mayor of Dearborn Heights, a suburb west of Detroit, said the suspect was a resident of the area.
A motive remained under investigation, officials said, but Baydoun also said in a statement on Facebook that earlier this month the suspect "lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon."
Ghazali's neighbor of around 10 years, who identified herself as Kandie, said she was "very, very shocked" when she heard about the accusations against him.
"I never had any problems. Great guy, really great guy," Kandie said about Ghazali, adding that she had last spoken to him about a week ago.
Law enforcement had the entire street blocked off Thursday night as they removed items from Ghazali's home, Kandie told NBC News.
Hundreds of people in Lebanon have been killed and more than 750,000 displaced in escalating Israeli attacks, which were launched after Hezbollah struck Israel in retaliation for the war on Iran.
"All of us have thoughts of maybe why this happened," Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said at the news conference. "But we don't operate in a world where we can presume something. We have to determine it through investigation."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said 104 students ages 5 and younger were in the early childhood center at the time of the attack.
The temple said in a statement on Facebook: “We are deeply and humbly grateful to our teachers, staff, security, law enforcement, and Shenendoah Country Club that welcomed us, fed us, and sheltered our staff, teachers, children, and parents. What incredible neighbors we have. What incredible police force we have.”
The head of security was taken to a hospital after the car knocked him down, Bouchard said. About 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation from a fire at the building that started after the car was driven into the building, Bouchard said.
"That building became engulfed," he said, adding that how and why the fire started would be part of the investigation. "It caused terrible, terrible smoke in that part of the building."
The FBI is leading the investigation into the attack, which it considers "a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community," said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit field division.
The attack happened amid rising incidents of antisemitism and in the midst of a war between the U.S. and Israel and Iran, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes late last month.
Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, said Jews would not change their behavior.
"This is a tough time," Ingber said at the news conference, and he thanked the security staff and police. "But we will get through this. We will get through this together. We will get through this stronger, and we will continue to be loud and proud of being Jewish. This will not change us."
Whitmer called the attack an act of antisemitism.
"It was hate, plain and simple," Whitmer said at a news briefing Friday morning. "We will fight this ancient and rampant evil. We will stand together as we do it, and we will call it out. We must lower the rhetoric in this state and in this country, especially at this moment where we have seen such a rise in antisemitism and more attacks on the Jewish community."
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said she grew up attending Temple Israel and emphasized that if it were not for the synagogue's security team, Thursday's attack could have been much worse.
"If they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here today, with children gone," Slotkin said at the briefing.
Temple Israel is a Reform synagogue with 3,500 families, or more than 12,000 people, as members, according to its website.
It was organized in 1941 and met at a sanctuary in Detroit, but moved to West Bloomfield, a suburb of the city, with the completion of a new building in 1980.
