A man who targeted a synagogue in Michigan with a car filled with explosives has been pictured for the first time.Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, crashed his truck into the hallway of a Detroit-area synagogue where children were attending preschool on Thursday and was shot dead in a confrontation with security personnel.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters: “We can’t say what killed him at this point, but security did engage the suspect with gunfire.”He added one security officer was struck by the man’s vehicle and knocked briefly unconscious.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali has been identified as the shooter | REUTERS
All 140 children were safely evacuated from the preschool and accounted for, the synagogue said.Ghazali was born in Lebanon and became a US citizen in 2016.A local Lebanese official told NBC News several members of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week. He reportedly arrived in the US in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a US citizen and was granted US citizenship five years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
PICTURED: Heavily-armed FBI agents on the scene in Michigan | REUTERS
The FBI said it was leading the investigation of what special agent Jennifer Runyan called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”The man crashed his truck through the doors of the synagogue and drove the vehicle down a hallway before a security officer fired at him, according to Bouchard.The attacker was killed during the confrontation. Authorities said it was not immediately clear whether he took his own life or was shot dead by security personnel.