The Toronto Police Service asked the public’s help on Saturday identifying a blue SUV, which a suspect drove on April 30 while shooting a “replica” gun at Jewish people.
“This investigation is being treated as a suspected hate-motivated offense,” the department stated.
Police described the weapon as a “Orbeez-type gun,” meaning one that shoots gel beads. It said that the victims, who were “visibly identifiable members of the Jewish community,” had “minor injuries.”
Several synagogues and Jewish schools are located within a few blocks of the site of the incident.
“On the streets of Canada’s most diverse city, Canadians are assaulted and shot at for being visibly Jewish,” stated the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA.
“Our country is facing a wave of violent extremism and radicalization—one that threatens more than a single community. It endangers the personal safety and democratic values of all Canadians,” CIJA said. “Confronting these forces requires everyone to stand up and demand action before we face the kind of loss of life seen in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.”
On Friday, the Toronto Police Service said that it brought new hate crime and riot charges against some of the six people, whom it arrested on Nov. 5, 2025, after rioters disrupted a private, pro-Israel event. A week ago, the York Regional Police in Ontario said that it was probing what it called a “hate/bias-motivated incident” that day at Sephardic Kehila Centre in Vaughan.
The police department’s 2024 annual report on hate crime data, which it released last May, found that 40% of all hate crimes in Toronto in 2024 and 81% of all such religiously motivated hate crimes targeted Jews, though some 3.6% of Torontonians self-identify as Jews, per official stats.
