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Suspect Dead, Security Guard Hurt After Car Rams Detroit-Area Synagogue 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 12, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking into CNN, an attack at a synagogue outside Detroit. The local sheriff there says a man rammed his car into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, armed with a rifle. That man is now dead. Here's more from Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

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SHERIFF MICHAEL BOUCHARD, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN: We believe there is one individual deceased in the vehicle. It's been complicated because there was some fire, to say the least, with that vehicle. We believe that individual is deceased. No kids -- this is the important thing -- no kids or no staff was injured whatsoever, okay? So, we have no victims other than one of the lead security people was hit by the car and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: The attack comes as Jewish organizations urge Jewish communities across the continent to remain vigilant and maintain heightened security measures as the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran. It's not known in what is still the early stage of this investigation what motivated the suspect to go after the synagogue, but we are getting more details as the day goes on. I want to go to CNN's Jason Carroll.

Jason, police officials saying no one was killed in this incident that was inside there except for this suspect. And also, too, not yet saying exactly -- they're still looking into what the motivation was here, how this all unfolded, but we are getting, as you've been reporting, key details.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. What you're mentioning are a lot of details that we'll be getting within the few hours, the next few days in terms of the investigation going forward. But as you say, Jessica, a lot of details now emerging about exactly what happened during those terrifying moments there on the ground in West Bloomfield.

Apparently, according to what we're hearing now from the sheriff, from the Oakland County Sheriff, is that this suspect was able to drive his car through the front doors of the temple there, make his way down a hallway before the lead security guard there was -- was able to engage with him. Some sort of gunfire happened. The sheriff says that this suspect was, quote, "traveling with purpose," that the security guard was able to engage with the suspect, and that law enforcement sources telling us that this suspect had a rifle in his possession.

And not only that, but had a large amount of explosives located in the backseat of the suspect's car. Again, the lead security guard was apparently hit as this vehicle made its way down a hallway, but that security guard was taken to a hospital. That security guard is going to be okay.

Other than that, the sheriff's saying that no one else there was hurt, and that certainly is a sigh of relief when you consider that at this temple, and it's a very large facility, but not only do you have at this temple, there's also an early childhood center located there. So, you've got pre-K, you've got kindergarten, and so you've got young children who are there as well, as well as instructors and staff. But again, no one other than that lead security guard was hurt.

A number of people in the Jewish community, obviously very concerned about this. You can imagine being a parent, this happening, and having to rush down there to find out if your child is going -- the Temple Israel, we should tell you, just to give you the type of atmosphere that the Jewish community is living with, there's been a rise of anti- Semitic incidents here in the United States.

And in fact, Temple Israel, just five weeks ago, had conducted some sort of a -- a active shooting drill. This was just five weeks ago. You can see there from their Instagram posts that they had put up, because of the environment that they're living in, to deal with something like this.

Michigan's governor, as well as the Attorney General, has weighed in on this, obviously saying that there is no place for antisemitism in the United States.

The sheriff has also indicated at this point that the situation is under control, and that they are, quote, "on top of it." What happens going forward, given that this is such a large area, they're going to have to secure not only the building that you see there is still smoking from the car and -- and what happened inside there, but securing the surrounding area as well. And also, trying to determine if this suspect was someone who acted alone.

Did this suspect act with others? These are going to be some of the questions that they are going to be trying to find answers to, going forward.

[15:05:05]

You've got the FBI. You've got the ATF that's involved with this investigation as well, but again, just terrifying moments for the community there in West Bloomfield, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit.

SANCHEZ: Jason, please stand by. Let's bring in CNN's John Miller who is hearing new details from sources.

John, one of the things I -- I thought was interesting in the reporting that you gathered was that these explosives were described as mortars.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, that's right. And we're at this stage now in this event where it started obviously very quickly and now they're going to go very slowly because what you have here is you obviously have a crime scene where this vehicle is stopped, the fire is out, the smoke, even as we speak, is still very present and interfering with their ability to work that scene.

But what they observed in the back of that car, these what appear to be mortar rounds, could be fireworks, could be commercial explosives, but that is something that the Oakland County Sheriff's Special Operations Unit and their bomb squad are working through, which is how do we determine what these are, how to handle them, how to remove them, and that's something they're going to want to take their time with.

The fact that the fire did not affect those or cause them to go off is a sign that they got to that fire quickly, extinguished it quickly, but it begins to give us a picture, Boris, of what the plan likely was. According to a law enforcement official who viewed the videotape of this car blasting through the doors, driving down the hallway, hitting the security guard as the other security guard fired rounds at it, the individual that looked at the tape said, it appears that there are rounds being fired from the vehicle as it's driving down the hall and stopped down the hall because it appears you can see shell casings being ejected out the driver's side window.

So, it looks like a layered attack was planned to ram through the building, some preoperational surveillance to determine if that was a place that you could actually break through at speed with a vehicle, to have explosives in the back of the vehicle, theoretically that were set in some way to -- to go off and to be shooting at any resistance they encountered.

DEAN: All right. John Miller, as always, great to have you. Thank you for that reporting.

I also want to bring in John Pistole, former deputy director of the FBI.

John, thank you for being here with us.

As Jason Carroll noted, the synagogue was -- was prepared for some kind of violence. We saw that they had had an active shooter drill with the FBI and other law enforcement not five weeks ago. It comes as we're now getting information right now that across the country in Philadelphia and Ann Arbor, also in Michigan and New York City, they're increasing police patrols in front of Jewish institutions and synagogues, places of worship.

How do you -- how do you kind of categorize where we are in terms of the threat level right now? And just again, zooming out and remembering where we are in -- in -- as this war goes on with Iran that started March 1st.

JOHN PISTOLE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Well, I think you've raised a couple of key points, and one is that they had actually anticipated the possibility of this type of active shooter, if you will, somebody consummating an attack. And fortunately, that training apparently paid off. Hopefully the security officer who was hit by the vehicle recovers okay. There's basically two types of active shooter training. One is a tabletop exercise, and one is what's called a field training exercise in different levels of involvement.

But anything that any organization group can do, something like that, and just five weeks ago, it was fresh in everybody's mind. So, the FBI now will be looking at was this individual acting alone? Was he a lone actor? Were there other people who might be sympathetic to his cause who might want to use this as an opportunity to do something else at another location or, heaven forbid, back at -- at this -- this temple, this synagogue.

So those are things that the FBI will look at. Who was this person in contact with? Was he part of a group loosely connected or was it simply he was that lone actor who decided for whatever reason, this is the time that I'm going to make this attack and die in the process.

SANCHEZ: John, I -- I wonder if you could speak to the process of gathering information on this suspect. Our understanding was that they were neutralized while still inside the vehicle.

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How do they trace this person's identity and -- and then go from there and figure out whether or not they were inspired by online propaganda or something to carry out this attack?

PISTOLE: Well, good questions, and it's something that the FBI is -- is exceptional at doing. In my 27 years in the FBI and having served as deputy director for almost six years, I was fortunate to oversee some outstanding work that the men and women of the FBI would do every day in situations like this and globally. And so, what it comes down to is what do -- what can they find out about the person through the typical things, his identity, the driver's license and license plate and all those type of things.

But then, the -- the -- in contact with online, who, as you say, was he inspired by somebody. Over the years, a number of actors, bad actors have been inspired by other people, both domestically and globally. And so, that's one of the keys that -- and one of the concerns that everybody has is that, again, does this inspire somebody else to do something basically as a copycat or is this a trigger that says, okay, the one in Michigan is going to be the first one to be one in Los Angeles and be one in D.C. and one New York, those type of things that would just really put people not -- not at ease to say, how long is this going to go on? Is it related to the conflict with Iran -- the -- the war in Iran and what -- so, what does that all mean? So, some very good questions and a lot of answers still to be

provided.

SANCHEZ: John Pistole, thank you so much for sharing your expertise. We appreciate the time.

PISTOLE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, more on our breaking news and the latest from the White House, where we understand that President Trump has been briefed about this attack.

DEAN: Also later, we'll speak with someone from the Anti-Defamation League about this and talk more about the reaction within the Jewish community. We'll be right back.

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[15:16:24]

SANCHEZ: Let's go straight to Jason Carroll, who is getting some new details about this incident in Michigan where a suspect is dead after ramming a car into a synagogue.

Jason, what are you learning?

CARROLL: That's correct, Boris. You know, we've been talking about the investigation and what they're going to have to do to try and find out who the suspect is. Did the suspect have any other connections to other people? One of the first steps is going to be to try to identify the suspect, right? But they're going to be running into, you know, some issues there because what we are hearing from a source there is that the suspect's body is so badly burned inside the vehicle that making an initial identification is going to be challenging in the initial stages.

Obviously, they're going to have DNA and other things they're going to be able to look at to make that determination eventually. But again, we're hearing that the suspect's body found there in the vehicle is so badly damaged, making an I.D. initially might prove to be difficult. Again, this is the suspect that drove his car inside the front doors of Temple Israel before he was able to be neutralized by one of the security guards there, you know, at the temple.

But again, going forward, the investigation is going to be focused on did this suspect act alone? Did this suspect act with others? These are just some of the things that they're going to be dealing with as they move forward. Boris, Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Yes, Jason Carroll with the very latest there. Thank you.

I want to go now to senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes, who is standing by.

Kristen, we understand that the President has been briefed on this. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. We

haven't heard from him directly, but we did hear from the Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who said the President had been briefed on the situation. We also know that there is a full federal presence on the ground there in Michigan, the FBI, the ATF. We have seen posts from the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, as well as the head of the FBI, Kash Patel. This, of course, coming at a time where there is heightened sensitivity to any kind of attack.

But in addition to that, we are unaware as of now if President Trump has spoken to local Michigan lawmakers. I will note that President Trump had said recently he had been in touch with Gov. Whitmer in Michigan on a completely other subject. So, unclear if they've spoken today in light of this attack there. But we are keeping close tabs on it. And President Trump is expected to be seen and make remarks at 4 o'clock at an event at the White House. We'll see if he addresses this there.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes from the White House, thank you so much.

We have more on our breaking news in just moments. We're going to speak to a representative with the Anti-Defamation League when we come back.

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[15:23:45]

SANCHEZ: We're staying on top of the breaking news out of West Bloomfield, Michigan, police say a suspect is dead after ramming a car into a synagogue that also has a school. The county sheriff says the suspect was armed with a rifle, explosives in the vehicle as well, according to emergency responders who searched the back of the car.

DEAN: According to the Sheriff, one security guard was injured, nobody else inside the synagogue or school was hurt. Joining us now, Oren Segal, Senior VP for Counter-Extremism and Intelligence with the ADL.

Oren, thank you for being here with us, and although I'm sorry you're here under these circumstances.

As someone who your job description just laid out, what you spend your time doing, I just want to get your first reaction to this attack, which I think so many Jewish people saw happen and it's -- it was like, you know, nightmare coming true.

OREN SEGAL, SVP, COUNTER-EXTREMISM AND INTELLIGENCE, ADL: Yes, Jewish communities across the United States right now are navigating a very unprecedented and high threat landscape, whether it's the rise in anti-Semitic incidents that we've seen, whether it's violent attacks just in the last year and a half, or whether it's the online discussion that is continuing to not only normalize anti-Semitic narratives and tropes, but really feature the type of language that we know animates people to action in the real world, the community is feeling vulnerable.

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SANCHEZ: I wonder what your reaction is to some of the dialogue and the discourse, especially online, when it comes to the conflict with Iran, which has heightened undoubtedly security, especially for Jewish places of worship across the country.

SEGAL: Yes, and I -- I should be clear, right, we are not sure what the motivation of this attack in Michigan is at this time. There's an investigation going on, but certainly, you know, when this is occurring, many within the Jewish community are no doubt thinking, is this somehow connected to the conflict overseas? Because so much of what we've been tracking online has normalized these conspiracy theories that the Jewish community is manipulating the U.S. government, that it's controlled by the U.S. government, and a whole range of other classic anti-Semitic tropes that if people truly believe them, will maybe result in them carrying out attacks.

So again, we don't know exactly what's happened in this case, but the community is on high alert for what might happen.

DEAN: Well, and we heard from, I believe it was a rabbi -- one of the rabbis we were speaking to out of Los Angeles, who -- who was reiterating how important language is, that words really matter, and that words can -- can lead to this -- to this sort of thing happening. How closely are you -- because there's -- there's the idea of being extremely online, right? And then there's what starts to filter out in the real world from those conversations. How closely are you monitoring that sort of thing?

SEGAL: We -- we monitor this very closely. I mean, you know, incidents that are targeting not just the Jewish community, but others often are incubated in online spaces. That's where one's worldview, whether you're young or older, are -- are created, are -- are normalized. And -- and that includes fantasies of violence and antisemitism. So, we know that there is an impact of the discourse and the narratives online in people's real lives.

But it's not just that language matters. What else matters is the law enforcement response that we have seen, right? This is not something that just happened today in terms of law enforcement being on high alert, right? As soon as the conflict with Iran began, we know that there were more visible presence of law enforcement outside of Jewish institutions. That's really, really important and valuable. It helps the community feel better. And in times of crisis like this, whether it's online or in the real world, having that allyship, not only from law enforcement, but from people in the community, makes a huge difference. And we thank those that are stepping up to support us.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Oren Segal, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time.

And still ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, more on our breaking news. We're going to speak with National Security analyst, Peter Bergen, about this attack. That's next, stay with CNN.

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