WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. – In a 911 call made minutes after a man rammed a pickup truck into a West Bloomfield synagogue, a woman believed to be his ex-wife asked Dearborn Heights Police to check on him because she feared he was suicidal.
Local 4 obtained a redacted recording of the roughly 3-minute call, which was routed to Dearborn Heights Police around 12:26 p.m. March 12.
In the call, the woman described the man as “not stable.”
“He’s like suicidal,” said the caller, who’s identiy was redacted.
The caller said the attacker was distraught after recently losing family members in an airstrike in Lebanon and that she had just received texts and a voice message from him.
“His family, his two brothers and their kids in an airstrike in Lebanon in the war and he’s not stable,” the caller said.
When asked whether the attacker had weapons, the caller said she did not know.
“I don’t know at all -- I’m scared,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s anything. I know he’s by himself.”
The caller did not mention a specific threat to Temple Israel or any planned attack.
A Dearborn Heights police report shows officers went to the man’s home for a welfare check but got no answer at the door. The report said the home “appeared secure,” and there were “no vehicles in the driveway.”
According to the report, officers ran his information through CLEMIS and learned he had prior police contact in 2020 that listed an employer. Officers then went to that location and spoke with an employee, who said he was not at work but had been in contact with someone connected to him.
The report also states a woman told officers he had asked her to “send his money to his family” and then stopped answering his phone.
The FBI has said the attacker sat in Temple Israel’s parking lot for more than two hours before the attack. At about 12:19 p.m., investigators said, he drove his truck through a door of the synagogue.
Temple security fired at him before he shot and killed himself, authorities said. Fireworks and what appeared to be gasoline in the truck ignited, and the vehicle caught fire.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the attacker was a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen who entered the United States legally in 2011 after being sponsored by his then-wife, a U.S. citizen. He then became a U.S. citizen in 2016.
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Force said on X that the attacker’s brother was a commander with Hezbollah, leading a unit responsible for launching rockets toward Israeli civilians.
Anyone with photos or videos of the attack is urged to submit them through the FBI digital tip channel or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.