The FBI is investigating a car attack on a large Detroit-area synagogue on Thursday as an “act of violence directed against the Jewish community,” the region’s special agent in charge said.
The suspect was killed by security personnel at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, authorities said. A preschool was in session at the temple, which is in a suburb about 30 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, at the time of the attack, but no children or school staff were injured, authorities said.
West Bloomfield Township Police Chief Dale Young said a 911 call at 12:19 p.m. reported “an active shooter situation at Temple Israel, where the individual entered the building.”
“Temple security officers engaged the individual and neutralized the threat,” Young said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The identity of the shooter was not released and the motive remains under investigation, authorities said.
“All of us have ideas about why this happened,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said at the news conference. “But we don’t operate in a world where we can presume something. We have to determine it through investigation.”
Temple Israel said 140 students were at its early childhood center at the time of the attack.
“We are deeply and humbly grateful to our teachers, staff, security, law enforcement, and Shenendoah Country Club who welcomed us, fed us, and protected our staff, teachers, children, and parents. What incredible neighbors we have. What incredible police force we have,” he said in a statement on Facebook.
The security chief was taken to a hospital after the car hit him, Bouchard said. About 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation from a fire in the building that started after the car entered the building, Bouchard said.
“That building was engulfed,” he said, adding that how and why the fire started would be part of the investigation. “It caused terrible, terrible smoke in that part of the building.”
The FBI is leading the investigation into the attack, which it considers “an act of violence directed against the Jewish community,” said Jennifer Runyan, FBI special agent in charge of the Detroit field division.
The incident occurred amid growing incidents of anti-Semitism and amid a war between the United States, Israel and Iran, which began with American and Israeli attacks late last month.
Steven Ingber, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, said Jews would not change their behavior.
“This is a difficult time,” Ingber said at the news conference, thanking security personnel and police. “But we will get through it. We will get through it together. We will get through it stronger and we will continue to be loud and proud to be Jewish. This will not change us.”
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the attack “every community’s worst nightmare.”
“We saw incredible people step forward today to save lives and apprehend the suspect. Our state is grateful to security personnel for their bravery and to law enforcement who jumped into action to keep students safe,” he said on X.
Temple Israel is a Reform synagogue that has 3,500 families, or more than 12,000 people, as members, it says on its website.
It was first organized in 1941 and met in a sanctuary in Detroit, but moved to West Bloomfield, a suburb of the city, with the completion of a new building in 1980.
