Toronto police revealed Monday that a high-speed chase followed the early-morning shooting outside the U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto, as officials condemned what Mayor Olivia Chow called a brazen attack. Speaking at a news conference, police said the gunfire erupted even though a marked police cruiser was stationed with its lights flashing directly in front of the heavily guarded building on University Avenue.
A pursuit that unfolded after the shooting reached dangerous speeds, with police saying that at certain points the fleeing vehicle was traveling in excess of 140 kilometres per hour. Officers ultimately discontinued the chase because of the danger it posed to the public, and a deputy chief said the force was dealing with what he described as a dangerous individual or individuals.
Police also said aerial support was not available at the time of the pursuit, and the deputy chief acknowledged that had a helicopter been in the air, the outcome might have turned out differently. The absence of that support, combined with the decision to call off the high-speed chase, left the suspect vehicle able to get away from the scene of the shooting.
Mayor Olivia Chow struck a defiant tone, thanking Toronto police, the RCMP and other federal agencies working together on the case. She said she had spoken with the Minister of Public Safety and pledged to keep working to get illegal American guns off the streets and to bring those responsible to justice, describing the shooting as a brazen attack on the city.
The deputy chief issued a direct warning to whoever was behind the gunfire, saying the force would get them and hold them accountable. He noted that police had apprehended the shooters in previous incidents at the consulate, and expressed confidence that investigators, working with federal partners, would identify those responsible for the latest attack as well.
Investigators said it was too early to determine whether one person or several were in the vehicle, and they did not rule out a possible connection to a March shooting at the same location or to a criminals-for-hire trend that police say has grown in the Greater Toronto Area. Officers said they would follow the evidence, and that a counterterrorism and security unit was among those involved in the case.