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Police Are Responding to Reports of Active Shooter, Car Driven Into Building at Synagogue With a School in West Bloomfield, Michigan; Michigan State Troopers Increasing Patrols at Places of Worship; Sheriff Says Nobody Confirmed Hurt After Shooting at Synagogue With School. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 12, 2026 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: K9 units there on the ground, police there on the ground. We received a statement from the Oakland County Sheriff's Department which has also responded to the scene out there saying that multiple agencies, as you can see with your own eyes through the live pictures there, are on the scene at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield after the reports of this active shooter came in.

Emergency personnel, we are told, also clearing the building. We are reaching out to find out if we can get any information from local hospitals, et cetera, to see what they are receiving or what they are dealing with.

Again, the incident prompted Bloomfield Hill schools to go into secure mode after this incident. Still trying to get more information about what they are dealing with specifically there on the ground. We can tell you, again, that we've received a statement from the Jewish Federation of Detroit saying, in part, we are aware of an active security incident at Temple Israel. Law enforcement are responding. Our Jewish agencies are currently in precautionary lockdown. We ask community members to stay away from the area.

Temple -- according to the Temple website, we can tell you that there is a preschool and early childhood, Kindergarten is also located there, you know, at one of the buildings. So you can imagine just how concerned parents are, community members are, who may have children there at the school, who may know someone who attends the temple there.

I also want to read something coming in to us now from the ATF of Detroit saying that they are responding to a suspected active shooter at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. It's currently an active scene, and they're telling us to follow them for any updates that may come in. Again, that's alert just now coming in to us from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

So I was just trying to give just a little bit of history about the temple there in Bloomfield Hills in Michigan. It's apparently the state's first Jewish congregation established in 1850 and located at Telegraph and 14 Mile Roads. It's a prominent Reform Jewish congregation.

Again, a massive presence that we've seen there, live pictures coming into our studios, reaching out at this point to local hospitals, to law enforcement to try to get you some more information because I know that's what folks are looking for at this point.

But what we can tell you once again is that police are there on the ground with multiple agencies responding to shots being fired and a car being driven into Temple Israel, which also, as we've just now told you, contains schools and young children. So trying to get information about any possible injuries on the ground.

We're going to bring it to you as soon as we can get it for you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Jason, please stand by and let us know when you have more information. Let's bring in CNN Senior National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, your reaction to seeing this footage from moments ago, it appears there are dozens of law enforcement vehicles --

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: -- outside of this synagogue and school.

KAYYEM: That's right. I mean, we're in the middle of it now, and I'm always super careful about, you know, what do we know now? If the statements about a car are true, this looks like it was a sort of, you know, an attempt to breach whatever security the school had and then have an active shooter incident.

And I will say that the ATF has acknowledged it. Local officials in Michigan have acknowledged it as ongoing. So we really don't know what's going on inside the room or its impact. So I can authoritatively address two separate issues. One, of course, is how is Michigan and the surrounding areas responding. The lockdown at various schools is part of all the planning, and in particular, a focus on synagogues or Hebrew schools, just given where the focus is.

So that we know is ongoing, and we're seeing it in terms of the lockdowns. However scary it is for parents in Michigan or people who know, have family in Michigan, just follow your local authorities in terms of what they're saying about accessibility. The second issue is the threat environment that exists today. And I'll be very direct, and I've been writing about it.

We are in the middle of -- or we're two weeks into a war of which tempers are high and targets may be focused on the Jewish community or acknowledgement of anti-semitism as people, as terrorists, the ideologues and others may begin to attack faith-based institutions around Judaism as a reflection of their disagreement involving the war.

[13:35:00]

I think there's nothing political about this to just simply say that the threat environment for people who are Jewish or Jewish institutions would be higher, given the animosity or the lack of support for this war in the United States, and the fact that terrorism groups that are ISIS or others are basically saying that people should -- people who support them should begin to start to attack either U.S. facilities or Jewish facilities.

That is out there, that was out there before today, and I think it's very, very important that we recognize that that's the threat environment that the homeland faces in light of the war. We haven't heard much from the White House. We've heard nothing from DHS or the FBI about this reality. It's taking experts like me to sort of say that we've got to be realistic about not only what the war unfolded abroad, but what it did here.

Now, whether all of these pieces combine to what we're seeing now, that's why we're going to wait. But I can talk in terms of what's the environment out there. That's the environment we're in right now.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, and Juliette, I think it's certainly fair to say that for many Jewish families and especially --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

DEAN: -- Jewish families that have children in these schools, this is something that they worry about and have worried about intensely, as we've seen anti-semitism in this country rising over the last couple of years.

I want to go now to an official. Let's listen.

SHERIFF MICHAEL BOUCHARD, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Incredible local security at the temple on top of things. It appears it's still very, very early. Everything is preliminary. At least one individual came to the temple.

Security saw him, engaged him in gunfire. The scene, we're not getting any active stimulus at the moment. We have everything here that we need, including medics and tactical gear. We're looking to see if there's more than one person. We're still trying to figure that out. We're trying to get access to the video.

At the moment, we just tell people that shelter in place for at least a mile area until we determine that there's no one else that maybe was on foot and fled the area, until we figure out exactly what's going on, number one.

Number two, reunification will be at the JCC, the Jewish Center, and that's where parents will go to pick up their kids. It's going to be secured by law enforcement, so no fear there. If you have nothing to do with the situation, don't go there. Don't come to the area. It's active and it's busy, and we're still trying to figure it out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, can you say anything about any potential casualties, anyone hurt?

BOUCHARD: Nobody at the moment has been confirmed to be hurt except potentially the shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any ties potentially to terrorism?

BOUCHARD: That's still way early to talk about. We have no idea because we don't even know who the person is at the moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has that person been neutralized?

BOUCHARD: We don't have that person in custody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So they're still on the run?

BOUCHARD: It's a work in progress, so that's why we're sheltering in place until we figure it out. It's a big facility with a lot of land around it. Until that gets secured and everybody is comfortable that there's no active threat in that spot, stay away from it, shelter in place.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're told there's a daycare, preschool, are all those kids out?

BOUCHARD: Yeah, everybody has been moved out of the school. We've got a ton of people here. As I said, West Bloomfield got on scene in a heartbeat. Everybody else came from everywhere. Actually, the chief and I have been communicating for almost two weeks.

Every time I've gotten some intelligence from the national level, I've been sharing. We've been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, of this happening. So there was no lack of preparation.

In addition, all Jewish facilities in the area are going to have a lot of extra presence around it until we figure this out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the school up the street, Pleasant Lake? Is it safe over there? Pleasant Lake Elementary right here?

BOUCHARD: Well, again, we would tell everybody to shelter in place.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there any security at this temple, as you mentioned?

BOUCHARD: Yes, there was, and they engaged the threat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there was one person that approached the security guard and -- ?

BOUCHARD: That's still a work in progress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, and then shots were fired?

BOUCHARD: Shots were fired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are reports that somebody crashed with a vehicle on the building. BOUCHARD: A vehicle was involved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they breach the building?

BOUCHARD: We're going to get into more details when there's time for that, and the chief will lay out exactly, specifically what happened. But we just want everybody to kind of know what's happening as we get it. More will come to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

[13:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, can you (inaudible)? Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We've been listening to officials in West Bloomfield, Michigan, giving us an update on this response to reports of an active shooter at a synagogue there at Temple Israel where there is a school. And we just heard from Sheriff Michael Bouchard in Oakland County saying that an individual came to the temple, security engaged him in gunfire, so the facility itself apparently already had some security. They engaged this individual.

Right now, law enforcement does not have that person in custody. The sheriff there was asked if that suspect was neutralized or whether they are still on the run. His answer, it's a work in progress. This is a big facility with a lot of land around it. These are photos taken from the air just moments ago. It appears that there is some kind of smoke emerging from the building.

We're not sure exactly what that is. We'll obviously try to dig into that. But it's notable that at this point, Jessica, no one is hurt.

DEAN: Yes, and that he said everyone, in his words, had been moved out of the school. So that is, yes, very important information here as we work to learn more. And his wording was interesting, his language was there's no active stimulus at that scene. Again, we can rely on Charles Ramsey and Juliette Kayyem who are standing by to help us understand what that means.

One more thing that I think is worth noting is that the sheriff was saying there that he's been talking to the police chief and they have been sharing intel about something like this potentially happening in the last two weeks, that they were prepared and that this was a scenario that they had considered, and that there was, in their words, no lack of preparation for this.

So, again, this is still kinetic. This is still happening. But Boris just laid out what we do know. I believe Charles Ramsey is standing by. Is he with us?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yep.

DEAN: OK. You heard there from the local law enforcement. You have so much experience in this area. What did you take away from what you were hearing? RAMSEY: Well, it sounds like, as of now anyway, no one was injured except perhaps the individual --

DEAN: Right.

RAMSEY: -- who approached the school, whether this was the driver of the car or what have you. It's also unclear whether or not there was an exchange of gunfire or if it was the guards shooting at the individual. We don't know if the person was struck or not. When they asked the question about whether he had been neutralized, that must not have happened.

He must be out on foot. They still have a shelter in place right now. So things are unfolding and unfolding pretty quickly. I noticed from one of the camera angles that you have with all the resources there, that's a staging area. One of the challenges when you have something like this happen is in organizing all those resources, the people that have shown up now to conduct a search, a systematic search of the area, because if this person did flee on foot, don't know if he's wounded or not, or she is wounded or not, then you need to continue a systematic search in order to locate the person.

SANCHEZ: Chief Ramsey, please stand by. I want to go to Shimon Prokupecz, who is joining us. Shimon, what stands out to you from what we just heard from the sheriff there?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think one of the things that's so important in all of this is just how much folks are on high alert given what's going on in Iran. But just in general, I mean, temples, synagogues, places of worship, schools, have all trained for these kinds of situations.

And it's really significant and noteworthy here that there were armed guards present at this site because, sadly, no one really feels 100 percent safe, right? And so, a lot of the institutions from our schools to many of the religious communities and institutions now have these armed guards. And there are layers of security that are there and are in place to prevent something like this from happening.

Here you see there is a tweet here from the FBI Director, Kash Patel. As we would expect, the FBI here is on scene with the partners in Michigan and responding to the apparent vehicle ramming and active shooter situation out of Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield Township.

I'm already getting calls and texts from people in that community who are very concerned over what has happened here. Word is spreading pretty quickly. They're saying that the only people that would be inside that school would be the staff, the teachers, and that there was pre-K students, children inside that school at the time.

And so far it appears, thankfully, that everything worked as it should. Sadly, really horrific moments for the people certainly in this community and for the people inside that school and temple.

[13:45:00] But it does appear right now, we heard from the sheriff there, that they were able to take action inside that school and temple. But it does appear right now, we heard from the sheriff there, that they were able to take action to prevent perhaps from anything more severe. We don't -- it's not clear.

I think it is notable that there is this fire. It looks like a fire, black smoke coming from the location. So it is going to -- we need to learn more about that.

And also, just this community and this county in Michigan, there was a -- I covered a school shooting there a number of years ago, and it was that same sheriff who handled that school shooting. It was a really tragic, tragic situation. So that community, that police department, the sheriff there, has extensive experience in dealing with situations like this.

And you can just see by their response, how quickly law enforcement responded that, certainly, everyone has been on high alert just in case something like this could happen. And here we see this situation.

No doubt that it does appear that at this point, that this location was being targeted for what it is. And that will certainly mean that the FBI will likely take control of this investigation and try and figure out exactly the motive. But it would appear, at least at this point, based on the FBI's involvement and other information, that this is going to raise a lot of concerns because it does appear that this synagogue was specifically targeted.

DEAN: Certainly. All right, Shimon, stand by. We are hearing from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

She writes in a statement, "I am tracking reports of an active shooting at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. We are working with Michigan State Police to get more information. This is heartbreaking. Michigan's Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace. Anti-semitism and violence have no place in Michigan, and I am hoping for everyone's safety. Thank you to law enforcement for their swift action."

Again, that's from Governor Gretchen Whitmer. And as Shimon noted, Kash Patel letting us know that the FBI is also on the scene there.

Let's bring Juliette Kayyem back in because, Juliette, we were just talking when we went to the sheriff there who was giving us the most information we've gotten so far. What stood out to you?

KAYYEM: I think it's absolutely that he said specifically in the last two weeks, he has been in contact with federal authorities as well as the Jewish community about the heightened threat level. It is something that all of us have been warning about, that this may be a regional war, but it's going to have global consequences. And one of them is going to be incitement, radicalization, in particular as Islamic terrorist groups are utilizing the war, like ISIS, to go online and to lure people to violence. Now, is that this specific case? We don't know. But when you asked me, what did I take away from that? I took away the fantastic news, and let's hope it holds, that no one but the assailant was shot. That is beyond, you know, everyone is incredibly grateful and the private security there is likely responsible for that.

But the second is, though we're not hearing much from the federal government on this, neither DHS, FBI, nor the National Counterterrorism Center have issued a formal bulletin, what we call, a formal intelligence bulletin to law enforcement. It is clear to me, state and local law enforcement, about the increased threat environment.

It is clear to me that state and locals are taking it upon themselves. They see the news to ensure that places that may be targeted, and in particular, synagogues, in this case, a synagogue or the Jewish community are focused on. And the threat environment that people that I talk to right now, who are in the state and local world, are worried about two things.

One, of course, what we've seen today, attacks against the Jewish community, and then, of course, attacks against Iranian-Americans. And so, all of that is part of this horrible stew of terrorism and incitement that we live in now in a world online and a world where violence is too prevalent. And so once again, the fact that the sheriff said two weeks, that's not a coincidental two weeks.

Every law enforcement agent knew or leader knew that this war was going to have consequences in the homeland in ways that we are seeing -- that we could be seeing today, I'll be careful, but in ways that we should anticipate the longer this war goes.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Let's go to retired NYPD Detective, Michael Alcazar.

Sir, I wonder when you hear the sheriff say that this perpetrator is not yet in custody, that it's still a work in progress, that they're working to secure the perimeter around this place of worship.

[13:50:00]

This perpetrator is not yet in custody, that it's still a work in progress, that they're working to secure the perimeter around this place of worship. What exactly does that entail?

MICHAEL ALCAZAR, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: I think the sheriff just being cautious of what information he releases. He did say that school security engaged the individual. So to me, if I had to take an educated guess, it sounds like they stopped the threat. It was good response.

They had security in the school. So it tells me that they did a good job hardening the target, right? That's what we got to do in this current climate. A lot of sensitive locations should have security, should have law enforcement. It sure sounds like they did in this location. It was a good response from multiple agencies. Right now, what they're probably going to do is like what the sheriff said, is going to do a room-by-room clearance to make sure that there's no other bad actors on the scene. So they have one individual. I'm assuming they have him in custody. I don't know why he said that, but maybe they didn't place him under arrest. Maybe they're interviewing him right now. Maybe they're interrogating him and trying to get any more information from him. That's what I take away from that.

DEAN: All right. Thank you so much. Stand by, Michael. We're going to come back to you again. We are following this Breaking News of reports of an active shooter at a synagogue with a school in it. We are getting more information by the moment. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:48]

SANCHEZ: We're following Breaking News right now out of West Bloomfield, Michigan, where police have swarmed the scene of a reported active shooting and a car being driven into a local synagogue where there is a school.

DEAN: Temple Israel is situated just outside of Detroit. Let's listen to the Oakland County Sheriff just a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOUCHARD: At least one individual came to the temple. Security saw him, engaged him in gunfire. The scene, we're not getting any active stimulus at the moment. We have everything here that we need, including, you know, medics and tactical gear.

We're looking to see if there's more than one person. We're still trying to figure that out. We're trying to get access to the video. At the moment, we just tell people that shelter in place for at least a mile area until we determine that there's no one else that maybe was on foot and fled the area, until we figure out exactly what's going on, number one.

Number two, reunification will be at the JCC, the Jewish Center, and that's where parents will go to pick up their kids. It's going to be secured by law enforcement, so no fear there. If you have nothing to do with the situation, don't go there. Don't come to the area. It's active and it's busy, and we're still trying to figure it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Let's bring in CNN National Correspondent, Jason Carroll. Also in those comments, it appeared -- he said that all of the children had been moved out of the school. Everybody had been moved out of the school, and to his understanding, no one had been injured except potentially that suspect. What more can you tell us, Jason?

CARROLL: All good points, Jessica. And another point that I noticed that he brought up there as well, that being Sheriff Michael Bouchard, he said no active stimulus at this moment.

So perhaps, and again, it's still very early on, but perhaps, you know, that gives us an indication that the situation has been neutralized. But again, we're still waiting for more information. The sheriff there also saying that they're trying to determine if they're dealing with one person or more than one person.

There were a lot of early concerns given that this temple also houses an early childhood center, a preschool, a kindergarten, a daycare center. So you can just imagine just how difficult this was for parents, for folks who have people who are connected to the temple, who were finding out -- learning about these early reports of, you know, shots being fired there and a car being driven into Temple Israel.

So you can imagine what the folks there on the ground are dealing with. The sheriff was indicating that this is a large area, as you can see there from the aerial footage that we're showing you now. This is a large area surrounding the temple. So, what law enforcement on the ground has to do is they've got to not only clear that very large building or buildings that you're looking at there, but the surrounding area as well.

They've got to do both of that. Again, a very large facility, but you do have a massive law enforcement response there on the ground that they have as well. You've got local police. You've got sheriff as well. The FBI has indicated that they are involved with this investigation going forward as well.

Again, there was a post from the Jewish Federation of Detroit which said, early on, we are aware of an active security incident at Temple Israel. Law enforcement are responding. Our Jewish agencies are currently in precautionary lockdown. We ask community members to stay away from the area at this time.

Hard for any parents, again, or anyone connected to the temple to stay away from the area. But we did get encouraging news from the sheriff there on the ground that he was saying that no one had been hurt as a result of what happened there on the ground. As you can see there, from the banner we're putting up, no confirmed injuries after the shooting at the synagogue with the school.

But the community has been on heightened alert given what we've seen in the country, a rise in anti-semitic incidents across the country. So you can imagine --