Toronto police link gun-for-hire networks to shootings at US Consulate and synagogues

TORONTO — Police in Canada said Tuesday they have linked multiple shootings, including at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto in March, to “multilayered” gun-for-hire networks that have also targeted synagogues in the city.

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw told a news conference that young adults are being recruited through encrypted messages and paid by the networks to carry out the shootings and have to film them to get paid. Some of the firearms used in the attacks have since been seized by investigators.

A veteran police officer was killed last week in a raid related to investigation of the shooting.

“What we know is bad actors are using criminal elements in our city to carry out these dangerous incidents,” he said. “It is clear that some of the people hiring these criminals want to create a sense of fear in our communities, including the Jewish community.”

Demkiw said Toronto police, along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI are trying to determine who is paying for the attacks.

Two firearms recovered during the investigation, believed to be involved in more than 25 shootings in the Toronto area, originated in the United States, he said. Ballistics testing is still ongoing.

Constable Marc Pinizzotto, 43, was shot on Thursday while officers were carrying out a search at an apartment building in the city’s northwest. He later died in the hospital.

A suspect who was shot by police, 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett, remains in hospital and will be charged with first-degree murder.

Investigators are searching for another suspect, 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, who is wanted in connection with the U.S. Consulate shooting and believed to be armed and dangerous.