BBC:
A driver who rammed his vehicle into a large synagogue in Michigan on Thursday afternoon is dead, officials say.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told reporters that the suspect had driven his vehicle through the doors of Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield and then down a hallway before it caught fire.
Security guards at the synagogue opened fire as he approached and then confronted him inside. One who had been hit by the vehicle was being treated at hospital and was expected to recover, authorities said.
The FBI said the incident was being investigated as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”.
The US Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalised US citizen who was born in Lebanon and came to the US in 2011.
Thirty police officers were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation as the synagogue became “engulfed” in flames, the Oakland County sheriff said. He added that the investigation would uncover what had ignited the fire.
Temple Israel – one of the largest reform Jewish synagogues in the US – also has a preschool from where dozens of children had to be evacuated during the incident.
FBI special agent Jennifer Runyan said the incident was “deeply, disturbing and tragic”.
Bouchard called the crime a “hateful, terrible thing” but did not elaborate on a specific motive.
“We know there’s evil in the world,” Bouchard told a news conference on Thursday evening. “When they show up, that’s where training and preparation come in.”
At an earlier briefing, Bouchard said “everything that was supposed to happen, happened”, adding: “Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.”
