Toronto The Good No Longer -- Open Season on Home Invasions

"When it comes to crime trends, it's challenging to attribute increases to a single factor. We use data to identify trends and determine where resources and strategies are needed most."

"When we see areas of concern emerge, we adjust our approach and deploy resources accordingly."

"We know that any home invasion is alarming and terrifying for residents, and we take these incidents extremely seriously." 

Toronto Police spokesperson Nadine Ramadan 

 

"We had a unique crime trend that was happening here, which were extortions or shootings attached to extortion, which are targeting our South Asian business community."

"At the end of May, we made a pretty substantial arrest: 'For Brothers', a group that was primarily involved in extortion."

"Since that time, we've seen the number of extortions targeting our South Asian business community decrease."

Peel Deputy Police Chief Nick Milinovich 

Toronto police named Daijohn Richards, 23, of Toronto as a suspect wanted in connection with a home invasion in the Bridle Path neighbourhood in which a businessman's family members were shot and attacked with a hammer. Daijohn walked into a Toronto hospital with a gunshot wound on Thursday, after it's believed he was accidentally shot by an accomplice during the home invasion. He was discharged from the hospital on Friday and is now missing. Still from Video, CBC

 

The recent home invasion of a mansion on Toronto's prestigious Bridle Path area of three masked men who confronted the homeowner, his wife and two adult daughters was fairly different from most home invasions taking place in Toronto in that this was an unusually violent event. The invaders carried weapons -- guns and a hammer. Three of the home's residents were shot, and one had been bludgeoned by the invader carrying the hammer. Two of the residents' injuries were serious enough to require lengthy hospital stays; the other two were treated and released, to continue recovering at  home. 

 

A woman believed to be the home owner came back to the home with Toronto Police and came out with three dogs believed to be family pets according to a man who showed up with leashes on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

 

The Toronto Police Service data indicate a 32 percent rise in home invasions in the past year. Among other crimes, such as a proliferation of hate crimes and fraud, the sprawling city of Greater Toronto with its over 7 million inhabitants also deals with a flood of social crimes that take place anywhere people gather -- violent physical attacks taking place at shopping centres, subway stations, public parks. Peel Region in particular has seen climbing incidents of shootings.

 

The number of home invasions taking place in Toronto this  year alone total 121. The Toronto police categorize home invasion by the number of victims involved. The  end of October saw 226 victims of home invasions, surpassing the total of 183 of the previous year. Among the 112 reported incidents 86 occurred in houses, with apartments and condos represented by 26 such events. All parts of the city saw the occurrences of home invasions; 22 of those events involved three or more victims.

 

This year there was one other shooting invasion aside from the Bridle Path shocker. That other event occurred in Lytton Park where a man was shot. St. Andrew-Windfields was the site of nine incidents located near Bayview and York Mills, while other multiple-attack areas had fewer but significant numbers of home invasions, ranging from 5 to 4. The Annex had a total of eight victims in one of its home invasion attacks. 60 of the invasions across the city involved one resident only. 

 

Police officers work at the scene of a home invasion in the Bridle Path neighbourhood in Toronto, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

On some evenings home invasions took place in duplicate in the sense of two invasions taking place in the same areas of the city on the same night, though it remained  unclear whether the same criminals were involved in each. Of the multiple occasions when two invasions occurred in the same areas one involved two houses a mere 1.7 kilometres apart. Most of these invasions were night-time events, taking place between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. In many of these incidents, house residents were asked for the keys of their cars which were taken possession of, and the invaders left.

 

Car-jackings representing another problem of mass dimensions in the city. Usually young gang members  carry out these car thefts, the high-end cars they focus on shipped out to foreign countries, and the profit from the stolen vehicles used to buy prohibited weapons in the United States and smuggled into Canada. Vehicle thefts have been a problem of long duration in Toronto, stolen from parking lots, and from peoples' driveways. 

A still from security video shows a masked man on the doorstep of Lea Ledohowski's Toronto home trying to smash through her front window with a hammer earlier this year. (Submitted by Lea Ledohowski)

In lock-step with violence and tensions in the Middle East, dating back to the 7 October 2023 invasion of Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas into southern Israel, saw a sweeping maelstrom of sadistic savagery against Israeli women, children and men, who were slaughtered because they were Jewish-Israeli citizens, leading Israel to launch a responding invasion to root out Palestinian terrorists such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLFP, Fatah operatives sheltering themselves within the civilian population. Toronto became a venue for hate crimes, with protest groups supporting Palestinians and targeting Canadian Jews with accusations and threats.

 

Toronto registered 443 incidents of hate crimes in 2024, levelling off in 2025, then finding reason to continue to rise in 2026 targeting the Jewish community. The continued prevalence and rise of hate crimes which include fire bombing synagogues and shooting at Jewish parochial schools, the ongoing vandalizing of Jewish-owned businesses, institutions and homes, has led Toronto Police to expand its hate crimes unit and to establish a counterterrorism security unit and task force where additional training is given officers.

 

Peel Region has seen an increase in homicides. "We operate on the idea that one homicide is too many -- at times [the numbers] can be sporadic, so it's important to look deeper into those incidents", remarked Peel Deputy Police Chief Nick Milinovich. Intimate partner violence in 2019, he pointed out, accounted for about half of homicides in the region. A unit was created to address the issue and since then the incidence of intimate partner violence has plummeted in Peel.

 

The Greater Toronto Area has seen robbery statistically reduced, although thefts over $5,000, fraud and cyber scams are on the uptick, a nationwide problem. There were 22,002 frauds so far in 2026 according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre -- with 15,402 victims and $535 million, the total estimated losses. TD commissioned a Leger poll that found 46 percent of respondents encounter scams or attempts at fraud weekly, even daily. 

"This is not the fraud landscape people are familiar with."

"Artificial intelligence has made impersonation easier faster and more convincing."

"The scammer no longer needs  your password. They just need your trust."

Detective Dave Coffey, Toronto Police Financial Crimes Unit   

A police officer works at the scene of a home invasion in the Bridle Path neighbourhood in Toronto, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor