DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — The man who drove his pickuptruck into a Detroit-area synagoguewas described as suicidal in a 911 phone call to police by his former wife that day, a TV station reported Monday.
The call to Dearborn Heights police came around the same time last Thursday that Ayman Ghazali attacked Temple Israel and its early childhood learning center in West Bloomfield Township,WXYZ-TV reported. The FBI said he exchangedgunfire with a guardand killed himself while inside the vehicle, which also caught fire.
There was no indication in the call that Ghazali's ex-wife knew that he had targeted the synagogue, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) from his home.
"I feel like he's really upset," she told police, according to WXYZ, which obtained a recording of the 911 call.
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She noted that Ghazali, who was a naturalized U.S. citizen, had lost family members during an Israeli airstrike on March 5 in Lebanon. A memorial service was held for them at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights.
"He's like suicidal," Ghazali's ex-wife told police, later adding that his "voice is not stable. I just want to make sure he's OK."
She said she didn't know if he had weapons. Dearborn Heights police went to Ghazali's house, but no one was there.
The FBI said Ghazali waited in his vehicle outside thesynagoguefor two hours before ramming it into the building where dozens of children were inside. No children were hurt.
Israel's military said Sunday that the man's brother, Ibrahim Ghazali, who was killed in the recent airstrike, wasa Hezbollah commanderin Lebanon. The FBI's Detroit office, which is investigating the synagogue attack, declined to comment on that description.
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