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Gunman in Michigan Synagogue Shooting is Dead; Explosives Found in Vehicle That Rammed Synagogue; One Killed, Two Injured in Shooting at Old Dominion University, Suspect Dead. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 12, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- 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 just the state of mind of people there on the ground.

Again, trying to get some more information now about this person who initiated all of this, this person who from all accounts drove some sort of a vehicle into Temple Israel and once again the minute that that happened, security that was there at the facility, again, according to the sheriff there on the ground, saw this person and "engaged him with gunfire." He went on to say "engaged the threat." Again, those are the words of the sheriff there on the ground.

So again, we're looking at a massive police presence, law enforcement presence there on the ground in West Bloomfield, Michigan, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit, a suburb of Detroit, as law enforcement now tries to get their handle on, are we dealing with one person? Has that person been neutralized? Are we dealing with more than one person? These are some of the questions now we're trying to find out for you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Jason, please let us know when you hear more. Let's get more analysis now from CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, former FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe. Andy, I want to get your read on what we heard from Sheriff Bouchard there. He was asked specifically if the perpetrator had been neutralized.

He said we don't have them in custody and then, when asked if that person was still on the run, he answered it's still a work in progress. It's a large facility and there's a lot of land around it. He said we're trying to sort it out.

What do you and -- how do you interpret that?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Yeah, it's a little tough to sort through that. And this is typical. I don't think this is a problem that the sheriff has created in any way. It's just the fog of war at this moment, trying to sort through what the facts are on the ground.

I will tell you that having been involved in many situations like this, you go into them knowing that most of the information you're going to get early on ends up being wrong. So that being said, it sounds -- he was very definitive that the --

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Can I interrupt you for one second? I'm sorry. We've got some breaking updates that I do want to go to Jason Carroll for. We'll come right back to you.

CARROLL: Thank you, Jessica. And I just now want to report, according to a law enforcement official there on the ground, the gunman was involved with this incident at Temple Israel. That gunman is apparently dead. We're just now getting that report.

You remember that Sheriff Michael Bouchard from Oakland County there on the ground said just a short while ago, when he was speaking to reporters there on the ground, he had indicated that a security officer there at the temple had engaged this suspect with gunfire there on the ground. He said, "Had engaged the threat." We can now report that that gunman is in fact dead.

The sheriff there on the ground had indicated that no one else had been hurt in this incident. But again, we can now report, according to a source there on the ground, that the gunman at the synagogue is in fact dead. And again, you know, a lot of concerns about, going forward, are we dealing with one suspect? Are we dealing with more than one suspect?

These are some of the questions now that that are still at least at this point, still very early on, but at this point, still outstanding because the sheriff had also indicated that they were trying to sort out whether or not they were dealing with one suspect. Are they dealing with more than one suspect? This will be part of the investigation and that sort of search there going on, on the ground at the moment because not only do they have to secure the building, even though this, again, this one suspect is dead.

They want to be sure, are they dealing with one person? Are they dealing with more than one person? These are going to be some of the questions and some of the outstanding factors that they're going to be dealing with going forward.

DEAN: All right, Jason Carroll, thank you so much for that. We can go back now to Andy McCabe. I was sorry to interrupt you there, but we did have that Breaking News. So now we know this gunman is dead.

And Andy, we had heard from the sheriff there that that the security that was positioned already just because of the world we live in, at that synagogue engaged with this person. And now, we do have this confirmation that the suspect is dead.

MCCABE: Yeah, that's absolutely right. We also heard from the sheriff that there were no other people kind of currently in jeopardy. They removed the children from the location. So essentially, time is on the sheriff's side now.

They have a large facility there. They're going to need to clear the entire thing. They're probably going to want to take a look in the wooded area around the facility, but they don't have to rush in.

[14:05:00]

There's no shots being fired currently. They're not aware of anybody being held hostage. So as the sheriff mentioned, they're going to first look at the interior surveillance video to see if they find any signals or traces that there might be another gunman in the facility, and then they're going to go through that facility in a, what we call, a slow clear. They're going to take tactical teams that are really going to take their time and be very careful and check every inch of it.

I should also say one of the things that's been apparent to me from the time that the video from the scene that we're seeing now has been on the air, is you haven't seen the sort of response that you would expect to see if it was an ongoing situation, right? You see a lot of law enforcement officers, some very heavily kitted out with tactical gear, and they are not racing from their cars towards the building.

They are kind of coordinating with each other and, you know, taking care of their equipment and things like that. And that's always a telltale sign that the shooting portion of this horrific event is probably behind us.

DEAN: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Andy, please stand by. We want to bring in Noah Arbit now, Michigan State representative, a member of Temple Israel. Noah, thank you so much for being with us. It makes me sad that it's under these circumstances, but I do wonder what is going through your mind right now, hearing that there was an attack on a place that you have had a lot of experience with, that you cherish?

REP. NOAH ARBIT, (D-MI): It's my worst nightmare, frankly. I was bar mitzvahed at Temple Israel. I campaigned on taking on hate crimes because this is the community that I love, and I know that it's an important issue to the community here in West Bloomfield. And we held a Hate Crimes Town Hall last year at Temple Israel, and the security was incredibly robust. And all the rabbis that I love, I mean, I think it's important to understand this is the largest synagogue in North America by membership.

And the idea that, you know, this issue that I work a lot on, hate crimes and domestic terrorism, would come home to roost at my synagogue in my own community is simply my worst nightmare.

DEAN: It's so understandable, and we're so sorry that you are going through this. I can't imagine what it's like to -- I know you know so many people there and are worried about them, although we do have that news that we wanted to hear, which is that there are no injuries that the sheriff can report besides the suspect. Help people understand, this is a large Jewish community in Michigan. I think that community is actually the largest Jewish community kind of in the Midwest --

ARBIT: Yeah.

DEAN: So it's a robust community. Explain that to people.

ARBIT: Well, yeah, West Bloomfield has the largest Jewish community in Michigan. This is -- Temple Israel is the largest synagogue in Michigan, in the United States, in North America by membership. And I think what's really important to understand is, you know, the building, as beautiful as it is, and it is a beautiful, beautiful building, can be replaced.

But what cannot heal, I don't think at this time, is our community's impending sense of insecurity, which we have been feeling more and more. I want your viewers to really understand that when we talk about anti-semitism, it's live, it's real, it's not something that's from the 1930s. It is a real deadly threat against your Jewish neighbors all across the United States and in the country.

This is now the fifth synagogue attack this week, two in Toronto, one in Baltimore, and one in Liege, Belgium, and now in West Bloomfield in my hometown. And I think it's really important to understand that the relationship between hate speech and hate violence is cause and effect.

And so when people don't stand up and speak out, or even worse, justify anti-Jewish rhetoric or discourse, it becomes a permission structure for people to view all Jews and Jewish institutions as legitimate targets of violence.

DEAN: Yeah, and I think you're underscoring something that's really important, which is just the general fear that hums beneath the surface in the Jewish community for so many people right now, and that they're looking at their screen and this is the nightmare come true. And that is just the state of things, and we know that there is already security there at the synagogue. They were the ones, according to authorities, that interacted with this suspect in the first place.

ARBIT: Yeah, I think it's important to understand this is an incredibly welcoming congregation. We have an anti-racism task force. We are constantly working on partnerships and events with different communities that are not Jewish, and interfaith work, and work with the Iraqi Chaldean community that's very prevalent here in West Bloomfield.

[14:10:00]

And so, the idea that the Jewish community and many Jewish communities in the United States and across the world are like that, because it's part of our value system that we want to build bridges with other communities and with other types of people. And the idea that the Jewish community would come for such vitriol and such targeted attack, both rhetorical and in terms of physical violence, it's shocking, it's sad, and it must end.

SANCHEZ: Noah, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Noah Arbit, a Michigan State Representative, a member of Temple Israel, we appreciate you sharing your story.

Let's go back to Jason Carroll because, Jason, you're learning more about this suspect.

CARROLL: Yeah, and Boris, as promised, we just want to bring you details as we're getting them in. And this one, just giving you a little bit more in terms of exactly how things happened there on the ground. Apparently, the suspect rammed a car into the synagogue and had a rifle in his possession when it happened.

After his car hit the building, that is at the point where security at some point opened fire with the suspect, and security was then able to kill the suspect. This, again, coming from a law enforcement official there on the ground. But, I just want to caution you, this is still very early on, some of these details, we may get more. We will clearly get more details, but this law enforcement official on the ground just wanted to caution that they're still in the early stages of their investigation, but it does confirm what we had reported earlier in the initial report, that someone had driven their car into Temple Israel and opened fire.

And so this law enforcement official on the ground confirming that not only did this suspect drive his car into the synagogue, but had a rifle in his possession, and thankfully, you know, to the quick thinking of the security guard there at the temple, was able to open fire with this suspect and take him out.

And you remember the sheriff there, Michael Bouchard, from Oakland County there on the ground, when he gave that statement, he said that security was able to "engage the threat" and that there was no active stimulus at the moment. No active stimulus, you know, perhaps that means, again, that the situation has been neutralized, but they want to be sure that they're dealing with, are they dealing with one suspect? Are they dealing with more than one suspect?

That's why you're hearing from your security experts there that that building has to be cleared. The surrounding area, which is a large area surrounding the temple, that has to be cleared as well. And in terms of follow-up, they're going to be checking with the FBI, other law enforcement officials there as well, to do all that they can to make sure that this -- to find out if this person acted alone, did this person have connection with others. This is how this investigation will proceed.

DEAN: All right, Jason Carroll with the latest details. Thank you for that.

Let's bring back in Andrew McCabe. Getting those new details from Jason, learning that this suspect, according to a law enforcement official, rammed their car into the synagogue and did have their rifle, a rifle in their possession. That's when security opened fire, killing the suspect. Andy, what does it tell you as we get more details? Obviously, we are still waiting on a lot of information here. But as we start to piece this together, what are you, what are you focusing on?

MCCABE: Yeah, sure. So there are obviously many, many details that we don't have right now that will make it easier to make these kinds of assessments later. But, you know, some of the questions that I \would have would be, did that person exit the car with the vehicle? Did that person -- what was that person wearing? Were they wearing, you know, any sort of protective material? Kevlar vest, tactical gear? Tactical clothing?

Did they actually deploy rounds? Did they shoot at the building or at any individuals outside the building? How close did they get to the building? These are all things that will give us, shed some light on the planning and organization that went into this attack. Right now, it's still pretty much up in the air with what little we know.

But at least, we do know that this is somebody who employed at least two different ways of attacking building, first, with a vehicle and then with a follow-on shooting. It's similar, very general way with the attack we saw in New Orleans on New Year's Eve just a little over a year ago, a gentleman who drove through a crowd with a very large pickup truck and then got out of the crowd, attempted to engage with a shoulder-fired weapon.

[14:15:00]

So this is a model that we have seen many times before, but it remains to be seen until we get those details to know, like how prepared was this guy? Did he look like he'd spent a lot of time thinking about it? Did he look like he'd purchased a lot of material? Is it possible that he received help or support from someone else? Those are the questions that investigators are going to be asking because it tells them whether this is a simple act by one lone offender or if it indicates some sort of organized attack planning, some sort of operational guidance that may have gone into that. We don't know the answers to any of that just yet, but I expect that we will as this starts to unfold.

SANCHEZ: Andrew, please stand by. If you're just joining us, the Breaking News out of Michigan, a suspect ramming a car into a Detroit area synagogue, immediately being engaged by security there. We'd learned moments ago that that suspect is now dead. No other injuries to report, thanks to the quick thinking and heroic efforts of that security team. We're going to take a quick break. We'll bring you the latest from Michigan when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:57]

SANCHEZ: Now back to our Breaking News. Suspect is dead following an attack on a synagogue in Bloomfield, Michigan.

DEAN: We're also following a second shooting, this one at a university in Virginia. It left two people injured. Officials say the suspect in that shooting was shot and killed. I do want to go to CNN's Ryan Young, who has new reporting again on this Virginia shooting. And Ryan, what update do you have?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, to be clear here, the all clear has been given on campus, but we have learned one of the victims has died. We also know that two others are in stable condition and the shooter is dead.

Now, this all happened on Old Dominion University. This is all around 10:49 this morning. They believe the shooting happened in Constant Hall. And at some point, there was some threat that was inside that hall. The shooter started opening fire. We have now confirmed one person is dead. Again, two others in stable condition.

The chief used the word neutralized the threat. So we're not sure if someone engaged the shooter or the shooter took his own life. Still trying to figure out in terms of the investigation, what prompted the shooting. But that was the update so far that we were given. Of course, classes have been canceled today and tomorrow.

Some very impassioned speaking during this news conference where the district attorney was pretty much saying more needs to be done to control guns. But at this point, still remains a lot of questions about what prompted the shooting there on campus.

SANCHEZ: Ryan Young, thank you so much for that update. Let's bring in Donell Harvin. He's a former Head of Homeland Security and Intelligence. Donell, just first, the broad picture, two shootings or at least two incidents across the United States in which -- in one college campus, a suspect opens fire, a victim is dead there.

Another one in which someone rams a car into a place of worship and exits with a rifle, that suspect now dead. I mean, this is quite a busy afternoon involving gun violence.

DONELL HARVIN, FORMER HEAD OF HOMELAND SECURITY & INTELLIGENCE: Not just a busy afternoon, Boris, but in the last seven days, we've had about six or seven mass shootings across the country. We had the IED incident in front of Gracie Mansion in New York City. And so, it would seem to our viewers that this country is becoming really torn asunder by violence. And they wouldn't be wrong.

The threat environment that we're currently facing right now is unlike anything I've seen in the last 30 years. My career started in counterterrorism or anti-terrorism on the day of 9/11 when I was with FDNY. That day, we only had one true adversary, and that was Al Qaeda. Now the threats are coming from everywhere.

DEAN: And Donell, I want to focus in on the shooting at the synagogue in Michigan. And just going off of your point of just the environment that we are in right now, specifically around Jewish people and synagogues and places where Jewish people gather. A joint statement from a number of Jewish groups have urged communities to remain vigilant amid this war that started on March 1.

We heard from the sheriff there that in the last two weeks since that war started, that he had been talking with other local law enforcement preparing for this. And then you have the synagogues themselves, which also in this case happened to house a preschool, which a lot of them do, where they are clearly prepared with security on campus as well.

That is a very particular environment right now that law enforcement is monitoring too. And then for the people living in it, they're feeling that acutely.

HARVIN: Yeah, I'll tell you, I've spoken at synagogues before about preparedness. That was the key word that you just used. I've worked a lot with houses of worship in D.C., and every time I go to a synagogue, I am taken aback by how prepared they are with armed security that is visible, sometimes law enforcement.

If you live in New York City, I'm a New Yorker, you can't pass by a synagogue on Friday or Saturday without seeing law enforcement there.

[14:25:00]

This community has been under siege for quite a long time. They're not new to this. They're very, very familiar with the threats they face. And this is a heightened threat environment. And so while many of us may be waking up to the realization that houses of worship are under attack, the Jewish community has been facing this for well over a decade.

DEAN: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Donell, please stand by because we're getting some new details from Jason Carroll. And Jason, what you're learning would imply that what this perpetrator was planning was something very significant.

CARROLL: Extremely significant according to multiple law enforcement sources there on the ground, our own John Miller getting this information for us as well, that emergency responders apparently found a large amount of explosives in the back of the vehicle, which just gives you even more insight into the sinister nature of what happened here.

Again, finding a large amount of explosives in the back of the suspect's vehicle. The same suspect who rammed his car into the facility -- into Temple Israel there and then was immediately encountered by security there on the ground who were able to take him out by shooting him. That suspect, we are told now, is dead.

And another bit of interesting information, just to give you the state of the type of society that we're now living in and what Jewish groups have to deal with. Just about several weeks ago, about five weeks ago, we are also learning that Temple Israel actually participated in an active shooter drill there at the temple. This is what the staff had gone through.

Folks there, who work at the facility, had organized just to prepare in case something awful like this had actually happened. We're also hearing that the NYPD, New York City Police Department, is tracking the situation. And out of an abundance of caution, as they often do when situations like this happen, they are deploying resources into high-visibility Jewish buildings and facilities here in New York City.

But once again, just a little bit more information about the sinister nature of what happened with this suspect. Apparently, again, according to multiple law enforcement sources on the ground, they found explosives, a large amount of explosives, in the back of that suspect's vehicle. Boris?

DEAN: All right, Jason, thank you so much.

I want to bring back in Andy McCabe because, Andy, when we talked to you just a few minutes ago, one of the things you said you were watching is what more will we learn about what was in this car? How prepared was this suspect? And now, we are getting these new layers that Jason is reporting there, that there were a large amount of explosives in the back of that car. Clearly, that suspect hoping to do a lot of damage there.

MCCABE: Yeah, no question, Jessica. And this is the sort of facts that we're looking for that really change the texture of how this looks from an investigator or a law enforcement officer's perspective. The presence of explosives changes this math equation significantly, because now you're talking about a much higher degree of preparation and planning, and also, some degree of knowledge, of experience, of training in how to assemble explosives. We don't know exactly what he had or how complicated or advanced those devices were.

They can be fairly rudimentary, things like black powder devices and IEDs, all the way up to plastic explosives and things that are more commonly seen in theaters of war. We don't know what was in the back of that vehicle yet. But again, just having some sort of explosive devices or explosive material shows us this person spent a lot of time planning and preparing.

They may have had assistance in procuring those items. They may have had training in how to assemble whatever is there and how to deploy those things. So I think as time goes on, we're only getting more concerned about what this person's motivation might have been and how they got to this point of acting today.

This looks less and less like just a rash, violent act that somebody committed in a fit of pique or grievance. This is like, you know, your terrorism investigators, counterterrorism investigators are going to be looking very closely at this.

DEAN: Yeah, and that's the key piece right there. All right, thank you for that.

SANCHEZ: Let's bring back Donell, to get your reaction to that news we just heard from Jason that apparently a significant number of explosives were found in the vehicle that the suspect used to ram into Temple Israel. --