Toronto police link dozens of shootings to ‘multilayered’ gun-for-hire network

Police investigators in Toronto have said that dozens of shootings – including one at the US consulate in March – are linked to a “multilayered” gun-for-hire network that is also responsible for attacks on synagogues around Canada’s largest city.

Toronto’s police chief, Myron Demkiw, told reporters on Tuesday that young adults and teenagers are being recruited through encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp by “bad actors” and paid by the networks to carry out the attacks. Shooters are required to film their attacks in order to get paid.

“Who is paying for this?” he said. “This is what we are trying to determine.”

A veteran Toronto police officer was killed last week during a raid linked to the shootings. Constable Marc Pinizzotto, 43, was shot early on Thursday morning while a team of officers executed a search warrant at an apartment building in the city’s north-west. Police have charged 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett, who remains in hospital, with first-degree murder.

They also announced charges against Jayon Burgher and Sheldon Tracey-Stewart for their roles in some of the shootings. Both are 18 years old. Police are still searching for 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, who they say is linked to the attack at the consulate. No one was injured in the March attack.

Police said two handguns seized during dawn raids last week could be connected to 27 separate shootings across the Greater Toronto Area and investigators believe the seized guns were being passed between multiple shooters.

“While we’ve been able to connect these firearms to numerous instances, we are still working to identify not only the individuals responsible for pulling the triggers but also those who may have directed or organized these acts of violence,” said Joe Matthews, the Toronto police service’s chief superintendent.

Demkiw said the shootings were part of a “broader” trend that police are seeing in the city and in other regions, adding the investigators were working with the FBI.

“What we are dealing with in this case and in other unrelated incidences, including shootings at synagogues and Jewish schools, is a recurring and similar modus operandi and that is criminals for hire,” Demkiw said. “It is clear that some of the people hiring these criminals want to create a sense of fear in our communities, including in the Jewish community.”

Investigators have been looking at the possibility that the shooting of the US consulate was linked to a global terror network that has threatened retribution for US attacks on Iran.

In May, US authorities charged Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iraqi national, with terrorism. He is alleged to be the architect of nearly 20 attacks in Europe.

US court documents suggest he has also claimed responsibility for the Toronto consulate shooting. In a criminal complaint, the FBI alleged that in a recorded telephone call al-Saadi suggested that “our people” were behind the attack.

“I know there’s been a lot of reporting about criminal groups and foreign actors,” said Demkiw. “But what I can tell you is that we are still working actively to investigate who is responsible for orchestrating these criminal acts.”