Toronto police are investigating after gunfire struck the U.S. consulate in the city once again, marking the second shooting at the heavily secured downtown building so far this year. Investigators recovered a single shell casing outside the consulate in addition to damage to the building itself, and officers say they are treating the case with the utmost seriousness.
Police say they are now trying to determine whether this latest shooting is connected to an earlier attack on the same consulate that happened back on March 10. That first shooting rattled the city and set off a lengthy investigation, and detectives are examining whether the same people or the same motive could be behind the renewed violence at the diplomatic post.
In the months since the March incident, three people have been arrested in connection with that earlier shooting at the consulate. Police pointed to those arrests as evidence of their resolve, saying the newest investigation is being pursued with the same dedication that led officers to identify and take the previous suspects into custody earlier in the summer.
The earlier case came at a steep cost for the Toronto Police Service. During one of the arrests tied to the March shooting, 43-year-old Constable Marc Pinizzotto was shot and killed, a loss that has weighed heavily on the force as it now confronts another shooting at the very same location that his colleagues had been working to protect.
Mayor Olivia Chow joined police at a news conference held outside the U.S. consulate, delivering a pointed message to whoever was responsible for the latest gunfire. She said the city had already apprehended the previous shooters, all three of them, and vowed that those behind the new attack would be found, brought to justice and held accountable for their actions.
Officers say the investigation remains extremely active, with detectives now searching for witnesses and combing through security footage from the area around the consulate. Police stressed that they are dedicating their best investigators to the case and asked anyone with information about the shooting to come forward as the hunt for those responsible continues.