Police arrest suspect who shot at Jews outside Toronto synagogue with gel blaster gun

Police in Toronto say they’ve arrested a suspect allegedly involved in two “hate-motivated assault with a weapon investigations” targeting Jewish people in the Canadian city.

In two separate incidents last night, Ruslan Novruzov is accused of driving by three visibly Jewish individuals and opening fire at them using an imitation firearm before fleeing, police say.

The second incident took place outside Toronto’s Congregation Chasidei Bobov synagogue. In both incidents, the victims sustained minor injuries.

Novruzov was arrested on Friday morning and officers recovered two gel-blaster imitation firearms. He is slated to appear before a judge later today, police say in a statement.

“We recognize that Jewish residents have been living with a heightened sense of fear due to repeated incidents targeting their community, and this only adds to that, which is unacceptable,” says Toronto police acting deputy chief Joe Matthews. “While the weapons used were imitation firearms, the impacts are very real. These are criminal acts that we allege were meant to intimidate and cause fear.”