An investigation into shots fired at the U.S. consulate in Toronto in March erupted into a shootout in the city early on Thursday, leaving a police officer dead, a suspect wounded and another man being pursued, the authorities said.
The shooting happened at around 5:45 a.m., the police said, after tactical officers who specialize in high-risk situations arrived at an apartment building in north Toronto to execute a search warrant.
The police said that officers were shot at by someone in the building, and that they fired back. An officer, Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, and a suspect, were shot and taken to a hospital, where the officer died. Nicholas Bennett, 19, of Toronto, will be charged with first degree murder in connection with the death of Constable Pinizzotto, the police said in a statement.
Another 19-year-old man, identified as Zara Jabbi, evaded the police during the raid and is believed to be armed and at large, Police Chief Myron Demkiw told reporters at a news conference on Thursday morning outside the hospital.
“No words can capture the impact on Marc’s family who expected him to come home today,” Chief Demkiw said of Constable Pinizzotto, who had spent the last five of his 18 years with the police on the Emergency Task Force, a tactical unit.
The unit had been conducting several raids around the city as part of investigations into previous shootings, including the one at the U.S. consulate in March. In that incident, two men drove by the consulate in downtown Toronto at around 4:30 a.m., got out of a white Honda CR-V and fired multiple shots at the building with a single handgun. No one was injured, the police said at the time.
“There’s a very heavy sorrow in our community right now,” Chief Demkiw said on Thursday, taking a moment to collect himself.
Speaking alongside the police chief, Mayor Olivia Chow said there were “no words that can ease the pain of the family, the loved ones, and the colleagues across the service.”
Pete Hoekstra, the United States ambassador to Canada, offered his condolences during a speech on Thursday morning at a major conference on U.S.-Canada relations in Toronto.
The building where the officer was shot is in a part of Toronto whose residents have long been plagued by gun violence. Last summer, an 8-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet that pierced his bedroom window, which faced a courtyard where three people were exchanging gunfire.
The officer’s death is Toronto’s 13th homicide of 2026.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Ian Austen in Toronto contributed reporting.
