Synagogue Shootings Dragnet: York Police Charge Chris Perreira in Back-to-Back Contract Firearm Attacks

VAUGHAN & TORONTO — A joint major crime investigation between York Regional Police and Toronto Police Service has resulted in the formal indictment of 23-year-old Chris Perreira of Barrie in connection with a series of targeted contract shootings against religious institutions and private residences across the GTA.

Perreira is identified as a primary operative within an organized guns-for-hire network offering financial payouts to young gunmen to execute targeted firearm strikes. On Monday, August 10, 2026, investigators formally unsealed additional indictments linking Perreira to the back-to-back synagogue attacks in Thornhill and North York.

Back-to-Back Synagogue & Residential Strikes

The religious property attacks occurred within a 20-minute span during the late hours of March 6 and early morning of March 7. Gunmen fired multiple rounds into the entrance of the Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto synagogue in Thornhill before targeting a second synagogue near Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue in Toronto.

Perreira was previously arrested in connection with a March 25 residential shooting on Clubhouse Road in Vaughan and a March 19 firearm discharge in Aurora. With two 17-year-old co-accused already in custody, major crime detectives confirm all primary shooters linked to the synagogue attacks have now been apprehended.