'It was Hate. Plain And Simple': Whitmer On MI Synagogue Attack

WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asking Michiganders to "lower the rhetoric" of antisemitism after a man rammed his vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Thursday.

"Yesterday’s attack was antisemitism. It was hate. Plain and simple," Whitmer said Friday morning, speaking at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. "We will fight this ancient and rampant evil, we will stand together as we do it, and we will call it out."

Federal officials identified the man as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen.

Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said Ghazali was a resident from his area. He also said that Ghazali "lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon."

Officials said Ghazali drove a vehicle through the front doors of the synagogue, striking a security guard and continuing down a hallway. That's where officials said security guards fired shots as the vehicle caught fire. Ghazali was killed inside the vehicle, though officials have not said exactly how he died.

One of the security guards was injured by the vehicle and is expected to be ok, officials said.

Temple Israel, which also has a preschool, said there were 104 children and roughly 50 staff members inside the synagogue when the incident happened.

"This could’ve looked a lot more like Sandy Hook. Let's not lose sight of that," Whitmer said. "This is targeting babies who are Jewish. That’s antisemitism at its absolute worst."

Whitmer spoke alongside other local officials, including U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who is Jewish and said she spent a lot of time growing up in Temple Israel.

"If they (the security at Temple Israel) had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we’d be talking about an immense tragedy here today, with children gone. This could have been much much worse," Slotkin said. "Whether antisemitism is coming from the left or the right, whether it's coming from some group you like or don’t like, you have a responsibility to call it out. Because when you don’t, it gives permission for people to climb that escalation, that ladder of escalation, that goes from saying hateful things online, to saying them in person, to graffiti to ultimately violence."

Officials said Ghazali came to the United States in 2011, applied for naturalization in 2015 and was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016.

The FBI confirmed they are investigating the incident as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.