Full story
Second consulate shooting
A gunshot was fired at the U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto early Monday morning, marking the second time this year someone shot at the building, and Toronto police said no injuries were reported.
“The U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto was the target of gunfire for the second time this year”
Toronto Police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said an officer stationed near the consulate heard gunfire around 4:45 a.m. and saw a white Honda Accord with no licence plates speed away from the scene.
Police briefly pursued the vehicle and then called off the chase on the Don Valley Parkway near Don Mills Road due to safety concerns over speeds that exceeded 140 km/h, while investigators recovered a single shell casing and found damage to the building's facade.
The incident occurred at the consulate building at 360 University Ave., and the area around the consulate was taped off with part of University Avenue closed at Dundas Street to southbound traffic and pedestrians.
The shooting came just over four months after the building was shot at on March 10, when RCMP called it a "national security incident" and no one was injured.
Chow, Ko, and Ford react
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the attack a "brazen attack" and told reporters, "I want to say to the person or persons responsible: We will get you."
RCMP Supt. Jonathan Ko said, "Threats and violence towards any persons in Canada are taken very seriously," as the RCMP worked with Toronto police and international partners on the investigation.
Police said it was too early to determine motive and could not determine how many people were in the vehicle, while Barredo said, "We will approach this investigation with great seriousness."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford condemned the shootings and vandalism in Toronto over the last few days, writing on X, "I’m totally disgusted by the shootings and vandalism that took place in Toronto over the last few days."
The Globe and Mail reported that investigators were looking into whether the two shootings are connected but that it was still early in the investigation, after police said they had not ruled out a link to the weekend bakery shooting.
Gun-for-hire links and next steps
The Monday shooting followed a March 10 attack in which police said two people fired shots at the consulate in what police later alleged was part of a guns-for-hire network, and an officer was killed during the search linked to that case.
“Supt Jonathan Ko with the RCMP called it "another troubling incident"”
The Globe and Mail said Toronto police arrested and charged Zara Jabbi and co-accused Sheldon Tracey-Stewart last month in connection with the March shooting, and it described the allegations as tied to a larger gun-for-hire network.
In June, Toronto police said they believed young people were hired to commit gun crimes, and the BBC reported that police were investigating the latest attack with the help of the RCMP and international law enforcement partners.
Police also said they were investigating damages to two Jewish-owned bakeries over the weekend, and Barredo said police had not ruled out a connection between those incidents and the consulate shooting.
The Globe and Mail reported that U.S. prosecutors and the FBI previously tied the March shooting to Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an alleged Iraqi terrorist with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and that he was arrested in Turkey in May and remained in U.S. custody.
