Violent attacks at Michigan synagogue and Virginia university rattle sense of safety in American communities

By Emma Tucker, Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

(CNN) — A pair of attacks over 700 miles apart on Thursday struck at the heart of community safe havens, leaving shocked Americans with an uneasy sense of security.

First, a deadly shooting being investigated as terrorism devastated a Virginia university in a military town. Hours later, a targeted vehicle-ramming attack on a Michigan synagogue left congregants shaken to their core.

The shooting at Virginia’s Old Dominion University was committed by a veteran who was a convicted ISIS supporter. The attacker was able to kill one person and injure two others before a classroom of ROTC students subdued and killed him, the FBI said.

Then, a vehicle rammed into the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township in an attack the FBI said targeted the Jewish community, carried out by a US citizen who was born in Lebanon, the Department of Homeland Security said. The synagogue had been on high alert for potential violence in the weeks before the building became engulfed in flames after the suspect drove through it with a rifle and a large number of explosives, officials said.

Though the motive in the attack is still unknown, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said there is a clear “nexus” between the Iran war and the attack, adding it’s no coincidence the suspect targeted a synagogue named Temple Israel.

The attacks are among four acts of violence that have rattled Americans’ collective consciousness in recent weeks. The two attacks on Thursday came just days after two terror suspects were accused of tossing makeshift bombs at a protest outside the New York City mayor’s home Saturday in what authorities have described as an ISIS-inspired attack

Less than two weeks earlier in Austin, Texas, a shooter wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the Iranian flag killed three people and injured over a dozen others in the city’s bustling entertainment district. Though the motive is still under investigation, authorities are investigating whether the shooter was inspired in part by US and Israeli strikes on Iran that weekend, multiple law enforcement officials briefed on the case said.

The country is in a “heightened threat environment” since the onset of the war with Iran, a “state sponsor of terrorism,” said Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security secretary under President Obama. He urged people to remain “vigilant.”

Here are the latest developments in the two Thursday attacks:

Michigan synagogue ramming

• Suspect identified: The suspect in the synagogue ramming attack has been identified by DHS as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon and became a US citizen in 2016.
• Officers sent to hospital: At least 30 law enforcement officers from various agencies were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and a security guard, one of several on scene who stopped the attack, was hit by the vehicle and is expected to recover, officials said.
• Possible tie to Israeli airstrike: Authorities are investigating reports that the man told people he had multiple family members who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon in recent days, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.

Virginia university shooting

• Shooter identified as convicted ISIS supporter: The gunman was identified by the FBI as 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guard member who pleaded guilty to attempting to aid ISIS in 2016.
• Students take down attacker: Jalloh opened fire inside a classroom of ROTC students who did not hesitate to confront their attacker. The students subdued and killed the shooter, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans. One of the students stabbed Jalloh, according to multiple law enforcement sources briefed on the case. The attacker’s ultimate cause of death is unclear.
• Victim identified: The person who was killed was Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, according to Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who described him as a devoted ROTC instructor who “didn’t just lead a life of service to our country, he taught and led others to follow that path.” Two others were also hospitalized for injuries.

Michigan synagogue became engulfed in flames

Temple Israel synagogue was on alert over the last two weeks, queued up with security officers after the West Bloomfield Township police chief had warned synagogues in the area about the potential for violence.

Their concerns were realized on Thursday just after noon when a suspect, armed with a rifle and a large amount of explosives, rammed “all the way” into the Detroit-area synagogue in a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” officials said.

Congregants were instructed to shelter in place as teachers looked after the children, helping them to stay calm, said Rabbi Arianna Gordon, the synagogue’s director of education. “We did hear the sound of shooting. We smelled smoke,” she told CNN.

Boris Krasnow, the parent of a 1-year-old boy who was at the temple’s day care, described the wait for information as “surreal.”

“It’s strange how almost calm you are because you can’t afford to panic. Just keep refreshing your phone, trying to find out what’s going on,” he told CNN affiliate WXYZ.

Multiple security officers on site were praised for stopping the threat, which kept students safe and calm in an incident that could have been “far worse,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

While security did engage the suspect with gunfire, the sheriff could not say yet what killed the suspect. Something caught fire inside the vehicle, Bouchard said.

The suspect’s body was badly burnt, two sources familiar with the matter said.

While further investigation will uncover exactly what happened, the synagogue became engulfed in flames and dozens of officers who went into the building to search for additional threats were later treated at the hospital after inhaling a “significant amount of smoke inhalation,” Bouchard said.

Over 100 FBI agents and analysts were mobilized in an effort to mitigate and respond to the threat while also pursuing leads, the agency said. The FBI is working with state, local and federal partners to investigate the attack, said Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office.

The sheriff texted with the temple’s head of security just two days prior as law enforcement has remained in contact with houses of worship throughout the area over the past two weeks, he said.

“If you think you can target the Jewish community in this county or anywhere in this state, you’re wrong. We’re going to not only stand in front of them to protect them, we’re coming for you,” Bouchard said. “…What happens around the world sometimes affects us, so we have to think about it and be prepared for it.”

The ramming attack is the latest in a series of incidents at a Jewish facility or event in the US and abroad, as the number of antisemitic incidents has been on the rise for the past four years in the US, Anti-Defamation League data shows.

Security is nothing new for Temple Israel, nor for Jewish institutions across North America, which spend about $765 million per year on security costs, according to the Jewish Federations of North America. In the aftermath of Thursday’s attack, law enforcement across the country is ramping up efforts to protect religious institutions.

Temple Israel has constantly worried about being a target and has increased security “over the last number of years,” said Rabbi Gordon. “… All of our security for that length of time has really reflected that we are fully aware of what the world looks like today for the Jewish community.”

Virginia university shooter inspired by 2009 attack

Old Dominion University student Zachary Mulder recalls the sinking feeling he had when he heard people screaming “shooter” and “gun” as they ran from the academic building where he had just been sitting in class.

“My heart dropped,” Mulder told CNN affiliate WTKR. “It was pretty scary at that point, because I didn’t know really what was going on or how close the threat was.”

The threat was inside a classroom of ROTC students in Constant Hall, where Jalloh had shouted “Allahu Akbar” — or “God is greater” — before firing at students, the FBI said.

“Brave ROTC members in that room subdued him, and if not for them, I’m not sure what else he may have done,” Evans, the FBI agent, said Thursday.

Before being overcome and killed by the students, Jalloh killed ROTC instructor Shah and injured two others, officials said. All three victims were members of the university, police said.

Investigators believe Jalloh was inspired by a 2009 shooting rampage at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, during which an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and injured 32 others, Evans said. The shooter appears to have been ruminating on the event since at least 2016, according to prosecutors at the time.

Jalloh was enlisted as a combat engineer with the Virginia National Guard from 2009 to 2015, an Army official confirmed. Shortly after he left the military, he was arrested for trying to provide support to ISIS.

Before his arrest in 2016, Jalloh tried to procure weapons to be used in what he believed would be an attack committed in the name of ISIS and also tried to donate money to the group, according to the Department of Justice.

Unbeknownst to Jalloh, he had been speaking to an FBI source who was monitoring his behavior. When discussing the timeline for a possible attack on US soil, Jalloh “expressed that it was better to plan an operation for Ramadan,” according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.

Thursday’s attack took place during Ramadan, a Muslim holy month that is observed as a time of fasting and spiritual renewal.

Jalloh pleaded guilty in 2017 to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017. He was released from federal custody in December 2024.

Students and staff at Old Dominion were just days away from taking a week-long school break. After the shooting, the university canceled classes on its main campus on Thursday and Friday.

“Our campus and our community have been truly shaken and forever impacted by this senseless act of violence, and we want to extend our thoughts and prayers to the families and the victims and those that were impacted by this act today,” university President Brian Hemphill said during Thursday’s news conference.

The FBI is still in preliminary stages of its investigation and is asking for the public’s help. Anyone with information about Jalloh or the attack is encouraged to submit a tip.

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CNN’s Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.