A 23-year-old man is in police custody in connection with the March synagogue shootings in the Toronto area, an arrest police say is the final one in the investigation.
Two teenagers, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, were previously arrested in May and also face charges.
The shootings occurred within hours of each other in March. The first occurred just before midnight on March 6, when York police received reports of gunshots and later found damage to the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in North York. A short time later, after midnight, Toronto police responded to gunshots at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue in Vaughan. No injuries were reported.
York Regional Police and the Toronto Police Service said Monday that Chris Perreira of Barrie, Ont., had been taken into custody after the two police forces’ investigation identified the 23-year-old.
Perreira faces multiple charges, including four counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a prohibited firearm, two counts of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, and two counts of mischief related to religious property.
It’s the latest charges Perreira faces, police said. He has also been charged in a March 25 shooting at a home near Clubhouse Road and Pine Valley Drive in Vaughan, and a March 19 shooting in the area of Steeplechase Avenue and Beacon Hall Drive in Aurora.
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The synagogue shootings are among a number of incidents in the past several months that police are investigating, which Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw said in June they believed young “criminals for hire” were behind.
In June, police raids resulted in two handguns seized that he said could be connected to 27 separate shootings in the Greater Toronto Area. During one of those raids, Const. Marc Pinizzotto died after being shot.
The firearms seized during those raids are also linked to shootings at synagogues across Toronto, according to police.
“What we are dealing with in this case and in other unrelated incidents, including shootings at synagogues in Jewish schools, is a recurring and similar modus operandi: that is criminals for hire,” Demkiw told reporters in June.
“Through encrypted messaging apps, young people are hired to carry out attacks against various targets. And in order to get paid, they’re required to film their attacks.”
Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp are the apps being used in the alleged network, investigators said.
A shooting that occurred earlier this year at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto is also believed to be connected.
Prosecutors in the U.S. have linked the shooting at the consulate to groups associated with the Iranian regime, but Demkiw said Toronto police are still keeping an open mind.
“Who is paying for this? This is what we are trying to determine, including by working with our RCMP and FBI colleagues,” he said in June.
The March shooting at the consulate on University Avenue was linked by authorities in the U.S. to an alleged international campaign from Iranian-backed groups against targets in Europe and North America. After that shooting, an Iraqi national was arrested in the U.S. and charged with terrorism offences.
U.S. prosecutors alleged Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi and others were behind the Toronto attack, as well as a second attack targeting a synagogue in Canada, while also co-ordinating nearly 20 attacks across Europe tied to an Iranian-backed militant network.
According to the unsealed U.S. criminal complaint, prosecutors alleged Al-Saadi and others “planned, coordinated, and claimed responsibility” for at least 18 terrorist attacks across Europe, along with “two additional attacks in Canada.”
Global News has asked Toronto police if there is a connection between the synagogue and consulate shootings and the case against Al-Saadi.
Ruby Sahota, the Canadian secretary of state responsible for combating crime, told her colleagues in the House of Commons in June she believes a “foreign entity” was behind the shootings at synagogues.
She said the shootings were carried out by people who had been hired and paid by a foreign power.
With the arrest of Perreira, Toronto and York police said there are no outstanding suspects related to the synagogue shootings, though the investigation is still ongoing.
— with files from Global News’ Isaac Callan
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