The top law enforcement officer in Oakland County decried antisemitism and religious hate as the director of national intelligence linked the Temple Israel attacker to a Hezbollah leader.
Flanked by faith leaders, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard spoke to reporters Thursday, March 19, saying that hate against Jewish people is a serious problem that needs to be curbed because hateful rhetoric can lead to violence. The news conference came one week after a 41-year-old armed Dearborn Heights man, Ayman Ghazali, rammed a truck filled with explosive fireworks, the FBI said, into an entrance of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, the largest synagogue in Michigan, exchanging fire with security before taking his own life. Ghazali, an immigrant from Lebanon, had been disraught over the recent deaths of family members in Lebanon killed in an Israeli air strike, said people who knew him, and Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun.
“Antisemitism and antisemitic behavior has become normalized,” Bouchard said. “It’s been allowed, and that’s unacceptable. You see kids at colleges getting yelled at and bullied and even physically assaulted simply because they’re Jewish. We as a community, we as a nation have to stand up. I don’t care what party you’re in, I don’t care what job you’re in, whether it’s in public or private venue, we have to stand up and say: ‘No, this is unacceptable.’ Because as this gets normalized, you’ll see it play out in the real world.”
Bouchard was joined by Jewish, Protestant, Chaldean (Iraqi Catholic), Muslim and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) leaders, who echoed his views.
Wisconsin man arrested after antisemitic image
Bouchard also announced that a person was arrested Thursday in Wisconsin after he had posted a modified photo of Bouchard dressed like an Orthodox Jewish man, with Hasidic curls on the side of his head, wearing a Jewish religious cap, with a Star of David sign placed on his forehead. The photo was displayed on a screen behind Bouchard as he described it.
“Some pond scum felt empowered and emboldened enough to put this picture of me up to try to threaten and intimidate me, which of course he didn’t do because I signed up for this,” Bouchard said. “The person that did this said a bunch of terrible things, not just against me, but against a lot of groups and individuals. … My point is … if this person is emboldened and empowered enough or feels safe enough to do this for me, what does he do to a kid? What does he do to a Jewish family walking down the street?”
Bouchard did not give further details at the news conference on the person arrested or what charges he may face.
DNI alleges Hezbollah ties to Temple Israel attacker
The day before Bouchard’s news conference, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a U.S. Senate intelligence committee that Ghazali had ties to a militant group in Lebanon, saying that “in the recent attempt to attack a synagogue in Michigan, the shooter had familial ties to a Hezbollah leader.”
Gabbard said the March 12 attack in West Bloomfield was one of several that she described as “Islamist terrorist attacks” over the past year.
“In 2025, there were at least three Islamist terrorist attacks in the United States,” Gabbard testified. “Law enforcement disrupted at least 15 U.S.-based Islamists. Roughly half of last year’s disrupted plotters had some online contact with Islamist terrorists inspired by Islamist Foreign Terrorist Organizations abroad. For example, in the recent attempt to attack a synagogue in Michigan, the shooter had familial ties to a Hezbollah leader.”
Gabbard’s remarks were the first time a U.S. official publicly linked Ghazali to Hezbollah. Israel’s military, Israel Defense Forces, said Sunday, March 15, in a post on X that Ghazali had a brother who was a Hezbollah commander. Asked about Gabbard’s remarks on the Hezbollah ties, Bouchard said it’s “pretty obvious.”
“We had a lot of that information on the day that this was happening,” Bouchard said. “The federal officials are making the confirmation of some of the specificity as it relates to the individual or their family. So I don’t really want to step on their toes on that, but obviously, a lot of that’s out there and pretty obvious.”
Bouchard added that Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.S. sent him “a communication immediately deploring this attack” against Temple Israel.
Also on Thursday, Fox News posted and aired a photo they obtained of Ghazali that they said he sent to his sister in Lebanon the day of the March 12 attack. The photo shows Ghazali with a stern expression, dressed in all black clothing and a scarf as he holds a large rifle. A reporter for the media outlet said Fox was told the rifle shown is the same one he brought with him during the attack.
Fox News said “there was Arabic writing on the photo referencing martyrdom and vengeance,” but it was “redacted in order to not amplify the message.”
Spokesmen for FBI Detroit officials, who are leading the Temple Israel investigation, did not respond to messages on Gabbard’s remarks or the photo of Ghazali.
Interfaith leaders unite in support of Temple Israel
Greg Geiger, president of the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit and a member of the LDS Church, talked about how the Jewish community supported LDS members, sometimes known as Mormons, after a man the FBI said was motivated by anti-Mormon hate struck an LDS house of worship near Flint in September, killing four LDS members and injuring eight.
“I want to openly acknowledge and express appreciation for the tremendous support the Jewish community has given to the interfaith efforts of our overall community for many, many years,” Geiger said. “They have been particularly helpful when other communities have been attacked, including when my own community was attacked a few months ago. They have been very solicitous and supportive and I call on all the communities who are here gathered and represented to continue to show that response as they have shown to others.”
The Rev. William Danaher, Jr, rector of Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, said that as Easter approaches, he was going to conduct an audit of Christian scriptures and messages to weed out antisemitic ideas.
“I invite Christians everywhere to engage in that careful self-audit so that we can stand and interrogate our own beliefs so that we can stand against this rising tide of antisemitism,” Danaher said.
Imam Mustapha Elturk, leader of the Islamic Organization of North America, a mosque in Warren, also condemned antisemitism as well as Islamophobia.
“In today’s political climate, we are witnessing a disturbing surge in hate speech and hate crimes around the world,” Elturk said. “From antisemitic attacks to Islamophobic rhetoric, the forces of division are growing louder and more dangerous by the day.”
Rabbi Josh Bennett, one of several rabbis at Temple Israel, said that “what happened last week at Temple Israel is not random. It was not spontaneous and it did not occur in a vacuum. This was the product of hatred that, as the sheriff said, has been allowed to grow in classrooms, in public discourse, online until it became violence. This is not a statistic. These are our children. This is our congregation.”
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sheriff slams hate as U.S. official links temple attacker to Hezbollah
Reporting by Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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