2nd Teen Charged in Toronto-Area Synagogue Shootings

A second teenager has been arrested and faces multiple charges in connection with shootings at two synagogues in the Greater Toronto Area in March.

A male teenager aged 17 from Waterloo has been charged with six counts related to his alleged involvement with shootings that took place on March 6 and 7, police said in a May 29 news release.

On Friday, March 6, police responded to a shooting at the Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue at the intersection of Clark Avenue West and York Hill Boulevard in Vaughan, finding the doors damaged by gunfire when they arrived. The occupants there at the time of the shooting were not injured.

Then on March 7, police responded to reports of gunshots at the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue near the intersection of Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue in neighboring Toronto. Doors to that synagogue had also been damaged by gunfire, and nobody was inside at the time of the shooting.

A joint investigation is underway involving the Toronto Police Service’s Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force and Hate Crime Unit, along with the York Regional Police’s Firearms Investigations Team and Hate Crime Prevention Unit.

The 17-year-old suspect faces charges including two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, two counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, and two counts of weapons trafficking.

The investigation also led to the arrest on May 6 of an 18-year-old male suspect, who was 17 at the time of the shootings.

That suspect, who police have not named given his age at the time of the incident, was charged with nine counts related to his possession and use of a firearm and the property damage.

In detail, his charges are: two counts of discharging a firearm into a place, two counts of mischief to property over $5,000, unauthorized possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possessing a prohibited device, careless storage of a prohibited device, and occupying a motor vehicle with a prohibited device.

As the investigation is ongoing, police ask anyone with information to contact police or Crime Stoppers.

The shootings occurred amid a surge in violent and hate-motivated acts targeting the Jewish community across the Greater Toronto Area. Toronto experienced a historic high in hate crimes, with Jewish residents—who account for less than 4 percent of the city’s population—becoming the victims in 40 percent of all reported hate occurrences and 81 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes, according to a report from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

Community leaders say that the attacks represent an escalation in a broader, ongoing wave of regional hostility, which has previously included targeted vandalism, public assaults against visibly Jewish individuals, and arson.