The FBI said Friday it cannot speculate on the motive behind why a man drove a vehicle into a Michigan synagogue but that the attack was not connected to a shooting at a Virginia university the same day.
Ayman Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon who worked at a restaurant in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, is accused of driving his truck into Temple Israel, the nation's largest Reform synagogue, just after noon Thursday and opening fire.
Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit field office, said at a news conference Friday that Ghazali died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Just hours before Ghazali's attack, a gunman with ties to the Islamic State opened fire at Old Dominion University in Virginia, killing one and injuring two.
The suspect, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Army National Guard member who yelled "Allahu akbar" before opening fire, was killed after being subdued by ROTC students.
"The FBI has no indications that this attack was connected to the shooting at Old Dominion University," Runyan said.
Runyan said Ghazali drove his gray Ford F-150 into Temple Israel's parking lot at about 9:58 a.m. EDT and sat in the vehicle until about 12:15 p.m., when he drove through the synagogue's doors at 12:19 p.m.
Runyan said the FBI is still characterizing the incident as a targeted attack, even though investigators found several jugs of gasoline and fireworks inside Ghazali's vehicle.
"We're just 30 hours into this, and we're letting the facts and evidence lead where we're going," she said.
"And it's too early to speculate on the subject's motive. For the FBI, motive and inspiration is a key part of how we characterize an incident," Runyan continued.
"At the end of the day, this is a devastating attack that was clearly targeted against one of our largest temples in the country. And we're pursuing every lead," she said.
"The FBI is working diligently. And when I'm able to provide that information in a confirmed way through the facts and the evidence that we have, we will provide that," Runyan said.
"But at this time, we're just referring to it as a targeted act of violence until we have further information to provide about his true motive."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote earlier Friday in a post on X that Ghazali entered the U.S. in May 2011 on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen.
ICE said petitions for an alien relative and fiance visa filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010. Ghazali applied for naturalization in October 2015 and was granted U.S. citizenship in February 2016 under the Obama administration.
LBCI Lebanon reported Thursday that Ghazali was from Machghara in Lebanon's Western Bekaa region, about 12 to 15 miles north of the Israeli border. The region is widely considered a stronghold for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group.
LBCI Lebanon reported that Ghazali's motive for the attack was retaliation for the deaths of his brothers Qassem Ghazali and Ibrahim Ghazali during a March 5 airstrike on Machghara by the Israeli military.
The Associated Press reported that Ibrahim Ghazali's two children were killed in the strike and that his wife was seriously wounded and remains hospitalized.
Israel has carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as tensions escalate following joint U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, whose ally Hezbollah has launched attacks on Israel.
NBC News reported that after learning of his relatives' deaths but before the synagogue attack, Ghazali bought about $2,000 worth of fireworks from a metro Detroit fireworks store.
A store employee told NBC News the store provided information about the purchase to federal officials in response to a subpoena.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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