Police work the scene of an early morning shooting outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on July 27, 2026. The Canadian Press/Sammy Kogan
Toronto police responded to
reports of
shots fired before dawn on July 27 outside the U.S. Consulate, which had been targeted by gunfire in March.
The Toronto Police Service said officers heard a firearm discharged in the area outside the consulate in the downtown core at 4:46 a.m., and a white sedan was seen leaving the scene. No injuries were reported.
The area outside the consulate on University Avenue is now cordoned off, and vehicles and pedestrians must use alternate routes. More than a dozen police vehicles are at the scene.
Days after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, there were multiple shootings at synagogues in the Toronto area, including
one
on March 2 and
two
on March 7.
The U.S. Consulate was also shot at during the early morning hours of March 10. That shooting, which the RCMP called a “national security incident,” inflicted no injuries but damaged the building.
An Iran-backed Iraqi national charged in the United States with terrorism-related offences in May was
linked
to the first consulate shooting. A U.S. criminal
complaint
released on May 15 in a federal court in New York alleged that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi and others were behind the Toronto consulate attack
and an
attack on a synagogue.
On June 16, Toronto
police said
they had uncovered a pattern of young people being hired to commit gun crimes in the city, including firing at synagogues, Jewish schools, and the U.S. Consulate.
Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw said at the press conference that young people were being hired to carry out the attacks via encrypted messaging apps, and were being required to film the attacks in order to receive payment.
Chief Supt. Joe Matthews said police had carried out several search warrants related to the shootings, and had made three arrests and recovered two firearms believed to be connected to the shootings.
In one case, the Toronto police arrested the alleged killer of a Toronto police officer who was shot during a raid on June 11. Const. Marc Pinizzotto
, an 18-year veteran
of the force, was killed while conducting a search warrant related to the shootings at an apartment in North York.
Olivia Gomm contributed to this report.
