Ex-wife of Michigan synagogue attacker told 911 that he was suicidal

The man who drove his pickup truck into a Detroit-area synagogue was described as suicidal in a 911 phone call to police by his former wife that day, a TV station reports.

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 says he exchanged gunfire with a guard and 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.

She noted that Ghazali, who was a naturalized US 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 says Ghazali waited in his vehicle outside the synagogue for 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, was a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon. The FBI’s Detroit office, which is investigating the synagogue attack, declines to comment on that description.