Michigan synagogue suspect seen buying fireworks, store says
The man accused of ramming a truck into Temple Israel spent more than $2,000 on fireworks in the days before the attack, according to Phantom Fireworks.
The man accused of driving a truck into a Michigan synagogue spent more than $2,000 two days earlier at a local fireworks shop, picking up items called “Da Bombs” and “military destruction,” a company executive told the Detroit Free Press.
Ayman Ghazali bought items at Phantom Fireworks in Livonia, Michigan, in the early afternoon of March 10, spent 45 minutes inside the store, then loaded the items into a dark gray pickup truck and left the store, said Alan Zoldan, executive vice president of the Ohio-based chain.
On March 12, a 41-year-old Dearborn Heights man drove his pickup truck into Temple Israel, a Bloomfield Township synagogue where a preschool was in session. Federal investigators said the security guard was injured in the attack, and Ghazali then shot himself. A fire broke out in the truck’s engine compartment, burning down the synagogue.
FBI officials said Friday that Ghazali had a large quantity of commercial fireworks and gasoline in the back of his truck. NBC News first reported that Ghazali had purchased large quantities of fireworks.
At first, it was not unusual for the store’s employees that Gazzali made expensive purchases during the off-season.
“There were really no signs of anything suspicious,” Zoldan said. “He was celebrating. I think he was telling his employees about the Eid holiday after Ramadan, but his attitude left no room for doubt.”
Surveillance video Zoldan shared with the Free Press shows a man with a clean-cut beard wearing black pants and a black T-shirt approaching the counter with a cart loaded with merchandise. When the employee called, the man smiled and returned to the aisle in another cart.
A company employee reported the purchase after the Temple Israel attack. Zoldan said the company was on high alert after learning that a teenager accused of trying to ignite an improvised explosive device at New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s home on March 7 had obtained a fuse at the Philadelphia Phantom Fireworks Show.
“Sure enough, around 5 p.m. (Thursday), we were contacted by FBI agents in Detroit, and they gave us a name, and it was an exact match to the purchaser of this fairly large order,” Zoldan said.
The FBI issued a subpoena to the company, and Phantom Fireworks responded by submitting surveillance footage and other information, he said. Mr. Zoldan said it was the store’s policy to ask for identification from buyers, which he said Mr. Gazzali provided.
A call to the FBI on March 13 was not immediately returned.
Ghazali “purchased items that were probably more powerful than they actually were,” Zoldan said.
It also contained “a roll of firecrackers shaped like one large firecracker,” but were actually “4,000 small firecrackers” that would cause a small barrage rather than a mass explosion, he said.
Other fireworks he purchased “had powerful appeal in their names,” including “Bomb” and “Military Destruction.”
“From what he was buying, we could see that he wasn’t exactly focused on the strength or power of the fireworks, but was buying fireworks with kind of powerful names,” Zoldan said.
He also purchased at least two nine-shot “finale racks” with “consumer-grade, large-diameter shells that are as close as you can get to commercially available fireworks.”
However, Zoldan said none of the fireworks were as powerful as the display-level fireworks, adding: “Otherwise the fire inside the temple would have been much more active and vibrant than it actually was, so luckily it worked out for the best.”
“For example, if the fireworks had been commercial, it could have caused a much more serious situation,” he added.
Law enforcement officials have not released a motive for the attack. Sources told the Free Press that four of Ghazali’s relatives were recently killed in Israeli military attacks in Lebanon.
Zoldan said he was saddened by the situation and wanted the company to be associated with joy, not hate.
“We’re excited because this year is the 250th anniversary of this country’s founding. We really want to bring people together and we certainly don’t want to be associated with anything that is divisive,” he said.
However, he added: “We have faced situations like this several times and we hope this does not foreshadow more to come.”
Writer Dave Boucher contributed to this report. Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Please contact vikononova@freepress.com.
