"They get paid to do it; they don't care what they shoot. This is the bottom of the barrel."

"Because of a couple of arrests in the GFL investigation, they had information in the individuals' phones that linked them to the consulate."

"They're videoing [the shootings] on their phones because the only way they get paid is to take a video." 

"This is just the beginning of a long investigation. The whole ring is  unwinding. They're starting at the bottom and working their way to the top."

"They're just raising havoc. They don't even know what they're doing. They're given an address and told to go shoot this address."

Anonymous insider source

 

"We know that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been using proxies, i.e., cut-outs or guns for hire, right across Western Europe."

"They can use these wankers, pay them not very much money and say we want you to do X, Y, or Z. These guys they're hiring have no ideology. They have no skin in the game."

"[The consulate shooting] at first blush [appears to be tied to] an actual state sponsor, that is the IRGC in Iran. We've never really seen that before, not to the best of my knowledge, and I worked on Iran at CSIS. I worked on jihadis at CSIS. I don't recall a single event where we can definitively say Iran paid his guy X amount of money to do this."

"[Hiring shooters is cheap and gives those doing the hiring] a level of plausible deniability. [That allows the Iranians to say] he's not ours. He's just some guy that's mad about Palestine or mad at [U.S. President Donald] Trump or mad at Jews and he carried this out independently." 

Phil Gurski, former senior strategic analyst, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) 

 

"What would the state of Iran get by expending resources and time to do these types of activities in Toronto?"
"What's the impact versus going to the United States and making trouble for Donald Trump if they had a real terrorist incident?"

"It does sound a little amateurish. We need a little bit more data before we pin this on Iran."

Daniel Stanton, director, National Security Program, Professional Development Institute, University of Ottawa 

Police had been investigating a March incident in which shots were fired at the US consulate building in Toronto.  Getty Images

 

Police were led by an investigation into shooting events at GFL Environmental facilities to those now considered shooters-for-hire, who had targeted the U.S. Consulate in Toronto this spring, suspected of having caused the shooting death on Thursday of veteran Toronto police Constable Marc Pinizzotto, 43, an 18-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service.

 

As a member of the TPS Emergency Task Force Constable Pinizzotto and others were executing an early morning search warrant at a downtown apartment building. Nicholas Bennett, 19, shot and wounded during the raid where Constable Pinizzotto met his death is under arrest to face a first-degree murder charge connected to that death. The search by investigators for 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, the second suspect wanted connected to the consulate attack continues.

 

The GFL facilities investigation plus the search of a Toronto home of one of the waste company's executives had led to the raid at the apartment tower north of Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue, uptown Toronto. According to texts and videos found in the phones of those arrested in the GFL investigation, evidence arose that shooters were paid between $600 and $800 to target buildings, including the U.S. Consulate in Toronto.   

 

Const Marc Pinizzotto pictured with his wife in a family photo   Supplied TPS

 

 Police warned the public that Jabbi, armed and dangerous was not to be approached. It was also revealed that he was involved in the theft of a vehicle prior to the shooting at the consulate facade located on University Avenue. No confirmation has yet been given by police that the investigation includes a search at a network of shooters for hire that had targeted Toronto synagogues, as well as GFL buildings.

 

Prosecutors in the United States, on the other hand, suspect the consulate attack had been directed by the commander of an Iraqi militia, Mohammad Baqeer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, who has ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A wiretapped conversation with al-Saadi shortly following the March 10 shooting at the Consulate claimed "our people" were responsible for the attack as well as another on "the Knesset", evidently referring to a synagogue in Toronto fired on at roughly the same time.   

"[If the IRGC did order the consulate shooting], it's a brilliant plan by the Iranians to make their presence known." 

"If there's something there, then I think it does point to a significant scaleup in Canada as to Iranian state activity on our soil."

Phil Gurski

 

"They find these guys that will do anything for a few bucks. They say here's the address: go shoot this place up."

"There are all kinds of desperate people out there with guns and they basically make their money by intimidating people or shooting up people."

"This is away beyond just the Toronto police, who have been stretched to the limit."

Councilor Mike Cole, representing Eglinton-Lawrence, Toronto 

Zara Jabbi, 19. is wanted in connection with the March shooting at the U.S. Consulate and is considered armed and dangerous. If you see him, do not approach, police say. (Toronto Police Service)