Toronto police arrest suspects in gun-for-hire shooting network

Toronto police said three arrests and two seized firearms are only the latest break in a wider gun-for-hire network that investigators believe has helped drive shootings across the Greater Toronto Area. Chief Myron Demkiw said police are now trying to determine who is financing the network, as detectives trace a pattern in which young people were allegedly recruited through encrypted messaging apps, paid to carry out shootings, and required to film the attacks to get paid.

The most visible case in the probe is the March 10 shooting at the U.S. Consulate General Toronto, where police say two male suspects got out of a stolen white Honda CR-V and fired multiple rounds at the building at about 5:29 a.m. after turning onto University Avenue from Dundas Street West. Investigators found damage to the glass and doors, along with shell casings at the scene, but no one inside was injured. Surveillance video later showed the suspects firing at the building and recording the attack on their phones, and the vehicle was later found abandoned in Scarborough.

That consulate case has already led to charges against Sheldon Tracy-Stewart, 18, who faces 11 offences tied to the shooting, including discharging a firearm at the consulate, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, escape from lawful custody, removing a firearm serial number, failure to appear and multiple illegal-firearms counts. Court documents describe the attack as a violent act against the official premises of an internationally protected person, Consul General Baxter Hunt. Police said one suspect still remains outstanding.

The consulate shooting is now being folded into a much larger investigation that stretches beyond a single attack. Toronto police said the file includes shootings at synagogues, Jewish schools and GFL Environmental waste-management facilities, and officers have recovered one 9-mm handgun they believe may be linked to at least six shootings and one .45-calibre firearm they believe may be tied to at least 21 others. The RCMP and the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team treated the consulate shooting as a national-security incident, while the Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force and the Counter-Terrorism Security Unit handled the investigation on the ground.

The stakes rose again on June 11, when a Toronto police search-warrant operation connected to the probe ended with the death of Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43. Police said Nicholas Bennett, 19, will be charged with first-degree murder in Pinizzotto’s death. Investigators also said the consulate shooting is linked to an April 2026 U.S. Department of Justice criminal complaint tied to an FBI terrorism arrest, a sign that the violence has become a cross-border security concern as well as a local crime problem.