US agents questioned Michigan synagogue attack suspect in 2019
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FBI agents are seen outside Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, US, on March 13.
PHOTO: AFP
DETROIT – The man who rammed his vehicle into a Detroit-area synagogue on March 12, setting off a fire and an exchange of gunfire that left him dead, was interviewed by federal law enforcement years before the attack, according to a person familiar with the matter.
During a 2019 interview in Atlanta, federal agents questioned Ayman Mohamad Ghazali after he returned from a trip to Lebanon.
In the course of that interview, they discovered that two of his brothers were identified as Hezbollah members and were among the contacts in his phone, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details are not public.
Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon, told investigators he had made the trip for a medical procedure, the person said.
It was unclear whether the bureau continued to monitor him after that initial interview.
The Department of Homeland Security said Ghazali, who was 41, was a naturalised US citizen who entered the country in 2011 and was granted citizenship in 2016.
Ms Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit field office, described the assault as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Ghazali drove his vehicle into the synagogue’s front entrance, breaching the doors before security personnel returned fire.
A fire broke out when the vehicle ignited, engulfing part of the building and sending roughly 30 law enforcement officers to local hospitals for smoke inhalation after they entered the structure.
The 140 students enrolled in the synagogue’s early childhood centre were unharmed.
Ghazali was killed during the attack.
Mr Bouchard said on March 12 that officials had not yet determined the exact cause of death.
Bomb technicians and explosives-detection dogs swept the vehicle and building for improvised explosive devices.
The attack comes as law enforcement agencies across the US have been on heightened alert following the launch of a joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran at the end of February.
Anti-Semitic incidents in the US have climbed sharply since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said the suspect was a resident of his city and had lost several family members, including a niece and nephew, in an Israeli strike on their home in Lebanon earlier in March.
Mr Baydoun added that “everyone deserves to worship in peace, and we must unequivocally condemn any attack on a house of worship or the people within it”. BLOOMBERG
