Jewish-Owned Toronto Restaurant Shot Up in Possible Hate-Motivated Attack

A hooded gunman crossed Avenue Road in North York just before 1:30 a.m. Friday, raised a firearm, and unleashed 14 rounds into a Jewish-owned restaurant, shattering the front windows and driving bullets deep enough into the interior to reach the doorway of the kitchen. No one was inside at the time, and no injuries were reported.

Toronto police responded at approximately 1:28 a.m. to the Avenue Road and Brooke Avenue area after reports of gunshots. Surveillance video captured the single suspect pulling out a firearm and unloading multiple rounds into the restaurant from outside. The gunfire tore through the front glass and reached the interior, with at least one bullet trajectory aimed toward the doorway leading into the kitchen.

The attack carries particular weight for the family behind the business. The restaurant is connected to the same chain as Old Avenue Restaurant, a Jewish-owned Azerbaijani cuisine establishment near Dufferin Street and Steeles Avenue West that was shot at on March 2, 2026. That earlier attack came on the same night gunfire also struck Temple Emanu-El synagogue and the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute. In roughly five weeks, the same family's restaurants have been shot at twice.

The Toronto Police Service's Gun and Gangs Unit is leading the investigation and has increased patrols in the area. Investigators are probing the shooting as a potential hate crime.

The timing sharpened concerns about motive. The shooting happened on the second night of Passover, and Israel's Consul General in Toronto, Idit Shamir, did not treat the timing as coincidental. Shamir called the attack "not random" and "part of a growing and dangerous pattern of antisemitic violence," noting the business is owned by "a prominent and activist member of the Jewish community." Community member Sharlene Wilder, speaking to CTV News, was more direct: "Antisemitism, Jew hatred."

Toronto Police on Friday posted a video on X showing enhanced presence of armed personnel guarding synagogues across the city for the Passover holiday. Deputy Police Chief Frank Barredo described it as "Task Force Guardian, a protective effort, a reassurance effort for the community."

The April 4 shooting fits a pattern that has accelerated across the Greater Toronto Area. In the first week of March alone, three GTA synagogues were struck by gunfire: Temple Emanu-El in North York on March 2; Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto in Thornhill on March 6; and Shaarei Shomayim in North York on March 7, the last two within 20 to 30 minutes of each other. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned those attacks as "criminal antisemitic attacks." Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stated: "The Jewish Community is under attack in Canada."

For kitchen and floor staff at Jewish-owned restaurants across Toronto, the Avenue Road shooting adds a concrete dimension to what had been an abstract anxiety: their workplace is now part of an active target pattern, and arriving for a morning prep shift means walking past windows that, at any given night, may not still be standing.