Governor Gretchen Whitmer is calling for a cooling of the rhetoric on both sides of the political aisle after a gunman rammed a vehicle into a Metro Detroit synagogue on Thursday, leading to a massive police response and several tense hours.
Security for Temple Israel in West Bloomfield killed the assailant, and no staff or students at a school at the temple were injured. The vehicle did catch fire, causing huge plumes of smoke to rise from the building.
At a press conference on Friday, Whitmer said Temple Israel is a pillar of the community where people congregate and celebrate.
“Yesterday’s attack was anti-Semitism,” Whitmer said. “It was hate, plain and simple. We will fight this ancient and rampant evil. We will stand together as we do it, and we will call it out. We must lower the rhetoric in this state and in this country, especially at this moment where we have seen such a rise in anti-Semitism and more attacks on the Jewish community.”
Police have identified the attacker as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali. Officials in his native country of Lebanon have confirmed he had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike last week.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on Temple Israel as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.
