Who was the Michigan's Temple Israel shooter: What we know about Ayman Ghazali

George Hunter and Craig Mauger, The Detroit News on Mar 13, 2026

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DETROIT — The suspected gunman who attacked a West Bloomfield Township synagogue on Thursday has been identified as a Dearborn Heights man.

Ayman Ghazali, 41, a restaurant worker, allegedly crashed his truck into the Temple Israel synagogue just after noon on Thursday and opened fire with a rifle. Authorities said he was killed by security guards.

A temple security guard was injured in an exchange of gunfire and taken to a local hospital for treatment, officials said.

They have not given details about a possible motive, but an FBI official said on Thursday that the attack is being treated as a "targeted" act of violence against the Jewish community.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday that the suspected attacker acted alone.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed late Thursday that Ghazali was the individual who carried out the attack.

Ghazali immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon

Ghazali, a native of Lebanon, was granted U.S. citizenship more than 10 years ago, under the administration of President Barack Obama, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

He entered the U.S. through Detroit on May 10, 2011, on an immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, the department said Thursday in a statement.

On Oct. 20, 2015, Ghazali applied for naturalization and was granted citizenship on Feb. 5, 2016, federal authorities said.

Sources told The Detroit News on Thursday that Ghazali had relatives who were recently killed in a military strike in Lebanon. According to the sources, Ghazali had at least four relatives killed days earlier in a military strike in Lebanon, the sources said.

Israel commenced a series of airstrikes in Lebanon after Israeli military officials said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets and drones from Lebanon at the Jewish nation after the U.S.-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader.

More than 770 individuals had been killed through Friday, according to Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health, as Reuters reported that Israeli officials said they were targeting Hezbollah strongholds in the densely populated suburbs of Beirut.

On March 5, an Israeli airstrike killed Ghazali's two brothers, Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali, as well as Ibrahim's two children, while his wife was seriously wounded and remains hospitalized, a local official in Mashgharah told The Associated Press. Kassim, a soccer coach, and Ibrahim, a school bus driver, and family were eating their fast-breaking meal for Ramadan, an annual Muslim rite, the source told the AP.

Israel warned residents of Beirut and its suburbs on March 5 to depart because of imminent airstrikes after Iran-supported Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel after the killing of Iran's supreme leader, according to Reuters.

Ayman Ghazali’s father was in the U.S. but recently traveled back to Lebanon, the official told the AP.

Details about Ghazali's work, family life

Ghazali worked at Hamido Restaurant in Dearborn Heights, a Mediterranean restaurant on Ford Road. Ghazali would walk down Gulley Road to Hamido Restaurant at Ford and Gulley, according to a neighbor who would occasionally see Ghazali with a woman and two young children.

Employees at Hamido Restaurant declined to comment Friday on Ghazali.

Ghazali’s ex-wife filed for divorce in Wayne County Circuit Court in August 2024, records show. The couple had at least one child, according to court records, and a divorce was granted seven months later, in March 2025.

Mohammad Ahmad Moussa, the ex-wife’s divorce lawyer, declined comment when contacted by The News on Thursday.

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—Staff Writers Charles E. Ramirez and Sarah Atwood contributed.