The manaccused of ramming a truckinto a Michigan synagogue spent more than $2,000 at a local fireworks shop two days earlier, picking up products called "da bomb" and "military demolition," a company executive told the Detroit Free Press.
Ayman Ghazali made the purchase at Phantom Fireworks in Livonia, Michigan, in the early afternoon on March 10, spending 45 minutes in the store before loading the items onto a dark gray pickup truck and leaving, said the Ohio-based chain's executive vice president, Alan Zoldan.
On March 12, the 41-year-old resident of Dearborn Heights drove a pickup truck into Temple Israel, a Bloomfield Township synagogue with preschool in session. The attack wounded a security guard before Ghazali fatally shot himself, federal investigators said. The truck's engine compartment caught fire and started the blaze at the synagogue.
FBI officials said Friday that Ghazali had a large amount of commercial fireworks and gasoline in the back of his truck. NBC News first reported Ghazali's bulk fireworks purchase.
Ghazali's pricey, off-season purchase at first did not seem out of the ordinary to a store employee.
"There were no real suspicious signs," said Zoldan. "He was celebrating – I think he mentioned to our employee the Eid holiday at the end of Ramadan – and his disposition certainly didn't give any reason for suspicion."
Surveillance video shared by Zoldan with the Free Press shows a man with a neatly cut beard and in black pants and a black T-shirt approach a counter with a cart of products. An employee rings them up before the man smiles and returns to the aisles, coming back with another cart.
A company employee flagged the purchase after the Temple Israel attack. Zoldan said the company was on high alert, having just learned that a teen accused of trying to ignite an improvised explosive device at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home on March 7 hadobtained a fuse at a Philadelphia Phantom Fireworks.
"Sure enough around 5pm (Thursday), FBI agents from Detroit contacted us, and when they gave the name it matched exactly up to the purchaser of this fairly large order," Zoldan said.
The FBI issued the company a subpoena and Phantom Fireworks turned over the surveillance footage and other information in response, he said. Zoldan said it's store policy to request purchasers' IDs, which Ghazali provided.
A call to the FBI was not immediately returned March 13.
Ghazali "bought items that he probably thought were more powerful than they were," Zoldan said.
Advertisement
That included "a roll of firecrackers that were shaped like one big firecracker" but that in actuality were "4000 small ones" that would result in a small a barrage rather than a mass detonation, he said.
Other fireworks he bought "had powerful appeal in name," such as "da bomb" and "military demolition.
"I could see by what he was buying that he was not exactly tuned into the fireworks for their strength or power he was buying fireworks with a sort of powerful name to them," Zoldan said.
He also bought at least two nine-shot "finale racks" with a "big diameter shell that are as close as you can get to commercial fireworks with them still being consumer level."
But Zoldan said none of the fireworks were as powerful as display-level fireworks, "which worked out fortunately for the best because otherwise the fire within the Temple would have been much more active and energetic than it was.
"It could have caused a much more serious situation if the fireworks were commercial grade, for instance," he added.
Law enforcement officials have not shared a motive for the attack. Several sources have told the Free Press four of Ghazali's relatives recently died in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.
Zoldan said he's saddened by the situation and wants the company to be associated with joy rather than hate.
"We're excited about this year because it's the 250th anniversary of this country and we really want to bring people together and we certainly don't want to be associated with something that's divisive," he said.
But, he added, "we've faced this a couple times and we hope it won't be a sign of more to come."
Reporter Dave Boucher contributed to this report. Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact her atvikonomova@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press:Temple Israel attack suspect on video buying fireworks, store says