Two suspects, including a minor, charged in U.S. consulate shooting: Toronto police

TORONTO – Two suspects, one of them a minor, have been arrested and charged in last week’s shooting at the U.S. consulate, which was the second such incident at the building this year.

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said a 19-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy are facing more than a dozen charges each in relation to the shooting. 

Investigators believe that, like the previous shooting at the consulate earlier this year, this incident also included a criminals-for-hire operation, the chief said in a news conference Thursday morning.

Demkiw said the force is working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other law enforcement agencies to identify the people directing and financing these attacks.

“We believe that these two individuals were offered payment to carry out this attack through encrypted messaging apps,” he said.

“There has been significant public interest and speculation about who is behind these crimes. That remains a key focus of our investigation.”

He said criminals are using encrypted technology to recruit young people and co-ordinate serious crimes. 

“As the criminal world evolves, law enforcement and the justice system must evolve with it,” he said.

The July 27 shooting prompted a brief, early morning high-speed police chase.

Police said a white Honda Accord travelling south on University Avenue pulled alongside the consulate around 4:46 a.m. They said a single shot was fired from the vehicle, striking the front of the building. 

No injuries were reported.

Police attempted to stop the suspect vehicle, but they called off the pursuit near Don Mills Road in the interest of public safety, said Chief Supt. of detective operations Joe Matthews.

“The suspect vehicle, which had been reported stolen earlier that day, was later abandoned in the area of Scarborough,” he said. 

“Through extensive investigative work including video canvassing, forensic analysis, and other investigative techniques, officers identified two suspects.”

Police say 19-year-old Xen-Ul-Abdeen Syed now faces 15 charges, including discharging a restricted or prohibited firearm into or at a place, attack on the premises of internationally protected persons, flight while pursued by peace officer and four counts of failing to comply with court orders. 

A 15-year-old boy faces 17 charges, including many of those faced by Syed as well as six counts of failing to comply with a release order. His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. 

The charges have not been tested in court. 

Three days before the consulate shooting, police allege the accused committed an arson in Caledon, Ont.

Matthews said on the night of July 24, the two suspects were driving a different stolen vehicle when they stopped at a gas station in the area of Kingston Road and McAllen Road and filled a red jerry can with gasoline.

“They then travelled to a residential neighbourhood in the Queen Street West and Mississauga Road area of Caledon where they allegedly poured gasoline on a vehicle parked in a driveway and set it on fire,” he said.

“Thankfully, nobody was injured.”

The consulate was previously targeted on March 10, when two suspects allegedly fired multiple shots at the building before taking off in a stolen vehicle. 

Police arrested 18-year-old Sheldon Tracy-Stewart and 19-year-old Zara Jabbi last month and charged them with multiple offences related to the March shooting. Those charges have not been tested in court.

The arrests came as police continued to investigate dozens of shootings across the Greater Toronto Area allegedly linked to criminal-for-hire networks, and after an officer was killed last month during a related raid.

Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, was fatally shot at an apartment building on June 11 while officers were carrying out a search related to the investigation. 

The man accused of shooting Pinizzotto, 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett, was shot and injured by police. Bennett was charged with first-degree murder in a case that has not yet been tried in court. His next appearance is scheduled for Sept. 16.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2026.