The story behind the death of a hero

One sad, tragic, immutable thing we know: Toronto Police Const. Marc Pinizzotto is gone. That we know.

At 5:40 am on Thursday, Marc Pinizzotto stepped into a fourth-floor apartment on Martha Eaton Way near Trethewey Drive, and he was shot once, and he later died. We know that, too.

But after that, it is hard to know some important things. Such as: why were he and he others there?

Almost immediately after Marc Pinizzotto had his life taken from him, different reasons were offered up for why he and other police officers were at that apartment building as dawn broke.

Some media said that the police were there to investigate the drive-by shooting at the U.S. Consulate on University Avenue in March.  Others said it was about a murder-for-hire operation. Others, a drugs-and-guns crackdown.

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, his voice shaking with emotion, said only this when asked by the media what Marc Pinizzotto and the others were investigating: “The investigation that lead to the search warrant where Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto was tragically killed concerned a number of shootings, including the shooting at the United States consulate on University Avenue. There were several search warrants executed this morning.”

Off the record, some police attempted to provide more detail. The death of their colleague was made likelier by one thing above all, they said: a culture of lawlessness that has grown in Toronto, where masked thugs have grown bolder and bolder, targeting one community above all.

Jews.

My newspaper was the first to say that. The “number of shootings” that Demkiw had enigmatically referred to? They were the times bullets have been sprayed at Jewish schools, synagogues and community centres since Hamas’ atrocities of October 7, 2023. About which the mayor of Toronto, and others, have offered up lots of thoughts and prayers, but not much else. “Politicians…coddled these terrorist supporters since October 7 [and] should be hanging their heads in shame,” one cop said.

They likely won’t, however. Even when there is important evidence available about the problem. Lots of it.

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