An attacker armed with a rifle rammed his vehicle into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., on Thursday before being killed by the temple’s security staff, authorities say.
None of the people inside Temple Israel, including 140 children who were at the synagogue’s on-site child care center, were seriously injured or killed in the incident. “Everyone is safe,” the synagogue wrote in a social media post several hours after the attack.
Authorities say they have not identified the suspect’s motive, but the FBI is leading its investigation as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said during a press conference on Thursday evening.
The suspect’s car caught fire inside the building, causing a blaze that resulted in 30 first responders being hospitalized with smoke inhalation. A member of the temple’s security staff, who was knocked to the ground by the suspect’s vehicle, was also taken to the hospital with what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement expressing her concern for those involved.
“This is heartbreaking. Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace,” she wrote. “Antisemitism and violence have no place in Michigan. I am hoping for everyone’s safety.”
Synagogues in the Detroit area were placed on temporary lockdown. Police in New York City and Washington, D.C., increased their patrols around Jewish cultural institutions out of an abundance of caution in the hours after the attack.
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