A Toronto police officer was killed early Thursday morning during a raid on an apartment building tied to an investigation into the American consulate shooting.
“It is with deep and profound sorrow that I must confirm the death of Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto, age 43, of our Emergency Task Force,” Toronto Police Service Chief Myron Demkiw announced in a statement hours after the fatal shooting.
On Thursday evening, police released a statement saying Nicholas Bennett, 19, of Toronto will be charged with first degree murder in connection with Pinizzotto’s death.
Police also released a photo of 19-year-old suspect Zara Jabbir, who they are searching for. Because he was a minor when the photo was taken, “a court has authorized the Toronto Police Service to publish his identity for a period of five days to assist investigators in locating him,” the statement says.
Police consider Jabbir to be “armed and dangerous.”
The consulate attack, U.S. prosecutors suspect, was directed by Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a commander of an Iraqi militia with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military body. A photo shared by the U.S. Department of Justice shows al-Saadi meeting Qassim Sulemani, the leader of the IRGC’s Quds Force, an elite outfit deemed by the Trump White House to be “Iran’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting” militia groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In February, al-Saadi was detained in Turkey and transferred to America, where he appeared in a Manhattan federal court. The unsealed criminal complaint alleged that al-Saadi was a leader of Kataib Hezbollah, which has been linked to Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, an Islamist group that has claimed responsibility for carrying out terror attacks across Canada and Europe, including the stabbing attack of two Jewish men in Golders Green, United Kingdom.
Al-Saadi was implicated in the American consulate shooting in Toronto in March. The unsealed complaint reported a wiretapped conversation with al-Saadi shortly after the incident, claiming “our people” were responsible for the attack as well as another one on “the Knesset,” which appears to be a reference to a Toronto synagogue that was fired on around the same time. No one was hurt in either incident.
Toronto Police Services spokesperson Stephanie Sayer could not confirm whether the raid Thursday morning was tied to the synagogue shooting or whether any of the suspects had ties to Iran or the IRGC.
“ I can’t confirm that information. We’re aiming to provide more information on the larger investigation tomorrow morning,” Sayer wrote National Post on Thursday afternoon.
Today, we mourn the loss of Constable Marc Pinizzotto.
“No words can capture the impact on Marc’s family, who expected him to come home today. We as a Service will support them and each other,” Chief Myron Demkiw said. “This loss will have a profound impact on the Toronto Police… pic.twitter.com/Y4j6Z4ml0l— Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) June 11, 2026
“ The investigation that led to the search warrant where Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto was tragically killed concerned a number of shootings, including the shooting at the United States Consulate on University Avenue. There were several search warrants executed this morning,” Demkiw’s statement said.
Police spokesperson Sayer could not confirm whether the raid was also linked to what American prosecutors view as a related targeting of a Canadian synagogue shooting.
“ I don’t have that information,” Sayer told the Post on Thursday morning. “More to come on this, though.”
Idit Shamir, the Israeli consul general in Toronto, shared Demkiw’s statement on X, saying “May his memory be a blessing.” CEO of antisemitism watchdog Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center , Michael Levitt, said Pinizzotto’s “tragic death in the line of duty is a heartbreaking loss for his family, his colleagues and our entire city.”
In early March, the American consulate in Toronto was shot at. RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather, overseeing the investigation, called the event “a national security incident,” though he cautioned it was “too early” to determine whether the perpetrators were connected to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
“I think it’s fairly obvious, based on the incidents that have occurred here in Toronto and elsewhere, that these consulates deserve a heightened amount of vigilance and security at this time,” Leather said at the time.
Pinizzotto’s death was mourned by the American Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra.
“Our thoughts, our prayers are with the family of the police person who was killed. They are with the police community, law enforcement community, in Toronto and Ontario,” he told attendees at a bilateral trade conference on Thursday.
“It’s an example of the close co-operation that we have in law enforcement between the two countries, how we work together, and the risks involved in those types of activities,” Hoekstra added.
Another member of law enforcement was injured and taken to the hospital, the Toronto Police Operations official X account wrote on Thursday morning.
The apartment complex where Pinizzotto was killed is located in North York, just north of the intersection of Black Creek Drive and Eglington Avenue West. Trailers from the police department’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) were spotted at the building on Thursday afternoon.
SIU spokesperson Monica Hudson told reporters gathered in front of the apartment high-rise that Pinizzotto was part of a broader law enforcement team that was executing search warrants in the building. A 19-year-old suspect who fired at police during the raid that led to Pinizzotto’s death was in critical condition and taken to a nearby hospital, Hudson noted.
Pinizzotto served with the Toronto Police Service for 18 years and had been a member of the Emergency Task Force the past five years.
He is the first Toronto police officer to die in the line of duty since Const. Andrew Hong was fatally ambushed in September 2022.
Statements of support have poured in from across the country.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the tragedy follows the death of Ontario Provincial Police Const. Tarun Bali on Tuesday.
“Canada mourns the loss of these brave officers who dedicated their lives to protecting their communities,” he said on X.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the Pinizzotto’s death “heartbreaking news,” saying “there are no words that can ease the pain of his family, loved ones and colleagues across the service.”
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre extended his “deepest condolences” as well.
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