A Toronto police officer was shot to death during a raid tied to a March shooting outside the US consulate.
The officer was shot during a gunfire exchange at a high-rise building in the early hours of Thursday, the Toronto Police Service said. He was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Police had been investigating suspects who allegedly fired shots at the US consulate building in Toronto earlier this year, in what US and Canadian authorities described at the time as a “national security incident”.
One of the suspects, identified as 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, remains at large and is considered “armed and dangerous”, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demikw said.
“I would ask anyone that would see him to call 911 immediately,” Demikw said.
Demikw identified the police officer killed as 43-year-old Marc Pinizzotto, who served as an officer for 18 years, including five on the Toronto Police’s Emergency Task Force.
Another suspect was shot in the gunfire exchange and transported to hospital with life-threatening conditions, police said.
The suspect was later named as 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett of Toronto. Police said he would be charged with murder in connection with the death of Pinizzotto.
Police said Pinizzotto was “executing a high-risk search warrant as part of a co-ordinated series of five warrants” when he was shot.
Police say their investigation was focused on shootings, including the one at the consulate.
At the time, police described two male suspects exiting a vehicle and firing at the building with what appeared to be a handgun before returning to the vehicle and driving away.
No one inside the building was harmed as the consulate building is “highly fortified”, police had said.
Police did not specify what other shootings they were investigating with the search warrants executed across the city on Thursday.
US officials have linked the March shooting to a dual Iranian-Iraqi national accused of running a terrorism network behind a series of attacks in Europe, the US and Canada.
US prosecutors allege Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi discussed the consulate shooting in a call in March.
Pinizzotto’s death in the line of duty was mentioned by the US ambassador, Pete Hoekstra, at a Canada-US trade conference in downtown Toronto on Thursday.
“I don’t know if you’re all aware of it, but a Toronto policeman was killed, I believe, overnight in an investigation that may be linked to the United States,” he told attendees.
“Our thoughts, our prayers are with the family of the police person who was killed,” Hoekstra said.
He added the incident is an “example of the close cooperation that we have in law enforcement between the two countries, how we work together and the risks involved in those types of activities.”
Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell described Pinizzotto as a “valued member” of the police force.
Chief Demikw tearfully told reporters that “there is very heavy sorrow in our communities right now”.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow also paid tribute to Pinizzotto and his family, calling his death “heartbreaking news” for the city.
The incident occurred just one day before Toronto is set to host its first FIFA 2026 World Cup game on Friday, where host nation Canada is set to take on Bosnia and Herzogovina.
By BBC News
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