Toronto police have charged a 35-year-old Brampton man with firearms offences after a shooting incident that police say targeted a Jewish-owned business in the city over the weekend.
Police responded to reports of gunshots near Avenue Road and Brooke Avenue in north Toronto at about 1:28 a.m. on April 3, according to a police report. A suspect was seen fleeing the scene in a dark-coloured SUV. No injuries were reported.
Two days after the incident, police executed a search warrant in Brampton, where a suspect was apprehended, the report says. Officers from the Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force, with support from the Hate Crime Unit and the Service’s Counter Terrorism Security Unit, were involved in the arrest.
Superintendent Ryan Forde of Organized Crime Enforcement said at the news conference that the shooting was the second incident targeting the restaurant owner. He added that police were already in the area at the time of the incident as part of efforts to protect the city’s Jewish community.
“We are working to determine why this particular business was targeted, whether this incident was connected to other similar incidents, and whether there were other additional individuals involved,” Forde said.
Chief Superintendent Katherine Stephenson pointed to an increase in incidents involving Jewish Torontonians and their establishments.
“Given the current global context, the polarization we’re seeing online and on our streets, and the radicalization of certain discourse, building a counterterrorism capacity is essential,” she said. “It’s not lost on us that there have been a number of shootings in a short period of time that have been targeting synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses.”
Members of the Jewish community in Toronto have issued statements recently in response to attacks targeting the community.
