Toronto police arrest outstanding suspect in U.S. consulate shooting

TORONTO — A 19-year-old outstanding suspect in the U.S. consulate shooting in Toronto last March has been arrested, police announced Thursday, as officers continue to investigate a pattern of shootings across the city allegedly orchestrated by gun-for-hire networks.

Police said they were called to the U.S. consulate on University Avenue the morning of March 10 after two suspects allegedly fired multiple shots at the building before driving away in a stolen vehicle.

Surveillance footage later showed the suspects shooting at the building and recording a video of it on their phones, police said. No one inside the consulate was injured.

Police announced Tuesday they had arrested Sheldon Tracy-Stewart, 18, on multiple charges in the shooting. They had also been searching for Zara Jabbi, 19.

Jabbi was arrested on Wednesday, police said, and he faces charges including attacking the premises of internationally protected persons, possessing a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm and theft of a motor vehicle.

His arrest comes as police continue to investigate dozens of shootings across the Greater Toronto Area allegedly linked to criminal-for-hire networks, and after an officer was killed last week during a related raid.

Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, was fatally shot while officers were carrying out a search related to the investigation. Police said it happened at an apartment building in the city’s northwest on Thursday and Pinizzotto later died in hospital.

The man accused of shooting Pinizzotto, 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett, was shot and injured by police and will be charged with first-degree murder, as well as offences related to two other shootings, police said.

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at a press conference Tuesday that “multi-layered” criminal networks have allegedly recruited young people to carry out crimes.

Similar networks have also targeted synagogues and Jewish schools in the city, and police are working with the RCMP and the FBI to figure out who is orchestrating the shootings, Demkiw said.

“Through encrypted messaging apps, young people are hired to carry out attacks against various targets,” Demkiw said. He added the people behind the networks “want to create a sense of fear” in communities, including the Jewish community.

“In order to get paid, they’re required to film their attacks. Who’s paying for this? This is what we are trying to determine,” he said.

Ruby Sahota, the secretary of state for combating crime, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that people who fired shots recently at synagogues were hired and paid by a “foreign entity.”

Sahota made the comments in response to a question about the government’s “lawful access” bill, which is intended to help police and spies navigate the online world. Her office did not immediately respond to a question about her remarks.

Demkiw said officers recovered two firearms during their operation last week, including a nine-millimetre handgun and a .45-calibre handgun, both of which originated in the United States. Investigators believe that firearms are being “swapped around” within the networks and used in different shootings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2026.

–With files from Jim Bronskill in Ottawa