Ayman Ghazali Drove Truck Into Detroit-Area Synagogue After Ex-Wife Told Police He Was Suicidal

As of March 17, 2026, 09:30 AM, authorities confirmed that Ayman Ghazali was the man who drove a pickup truck into a synagogue in the Detroit area, and that his former wife had placed a 911 call to Dearborn Heights police earlier that day expressing concern that he was suicidal.

The FBI said Ghazali exchanged gunfire with a security guard and died by a self-inflicted firearm wound inside his vehicle, which subsequently caught fire. Investigators reported he had waited in the truck outside Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township for roughly two hours before ramming the building, where dozens of children were present; officials said no children were injured.

In the 911 recording, reviewed by investigators, Ghazali’s former wife said he appeared distraught and noted he had lost family members in an Israeli airstrike on March 5 in Lebanon. She told police she feared he was suicidal, that his voice was unstable and that she did not know whether he was armed; Dearborn Heights officers checked his home but found no one there.

Israel’s military identified Ghazali’s brother, Ibrahim Ghazali, as a Hezbollah commander who was killed in the March strike; the FBI’s Detroit office declined to corroborate that characterization as it continues its probe into the synagogue attack.