WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — During a Friday evening press conference with multiple law enforcement agencies about the attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, a timeline of events and new details were released, including that the suspect shot and killed himself during a gunfight with security.
The FBI confirmed the suspect was 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Dearborn Heights resident. Ghazali had no previous criminal history, no registered weapons and had not been involved with any previous FBI investigations, said Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office.
The timeline for the events Thursday are below:
9:58 a.m.: Suspect drives Ford F-150 into parking lot of Temple Israel
10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Suspect remains inside parked vehicle with no one else or other vehicles associated with him
12:19 p.m.: Suspect drives through Door 5, hitting security guard
12:20 p.m.: Vehicle gets jammed between hallway walls and suspect begins firing his gun through windshield.
After that, Ghazali and a security guard engage in a gunfight through the rear window of the vehicle. Ghazali then became trapped since the vehicle was jammed in the hallway.
12:22 p.m. Second guard engages suspect in gunfight from front of the vehicle. Then, the vehicle’s engine compartment caught fire. Ghazali then shot himself in the head.
Runyan says commercial-grade fireworks were found in the bed of the pickup truck as well as several jugs of flammable liquid that's believed to be gasoline. Some of that was consumed in the fire.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard says 605 law enforcement officers responded to the scene from 42 different agencies.
He says a total of 63 law enforcement officers were sent to the hospital from smoke inhalation. First responders continued to pour into the building despite the fire to make sure there was no threat and to evacuate the innocent.
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Bouchard says training within the last month at Temple Israel was a coincidence, despite some questioning the timing.
“We’re training all the time as agencies with our partners, our houses of worship, our schools. That was one of those trainings. There was no credible intelligence that it was about to get hit,” the sheriff said.
To the partners across the state, federal agencies and more, "thank you for your invaluable assistance during one of the darkest days in West Bloomfield Township's history," West Bloomfield Township Police Chief Dale Young said.
Officials said there are no new known threats to the community.
