Canada boosts security at US, Israeli diplomatic buildings after consulate shooting
By Ryan Patrick Jones and David Ljunggren
TORONTO/WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - Canada is increasing security around U.S. and Israeli diplomatic buildings after a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto, a Canadian police official said on Tuesday.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said the consulate shooting is being investigated as a "national security incident," although it's too early to determine the motive.
Leather said the U.S. and Israeli consulates in Toronto, the country's most populous city, and embassies in the capital Ottawa will be seeing a change in the security posture in response to the shooting.
"These consulates deserve a heightened amount of vigilance and security at this time in the hopes that we can bring the temperature down in the coming days and weeks," Leather told reporters at a press conference.
Toronto Police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said police were called to the U.S. consulate in Toronto around 5:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, where they found spent shell casings and damage to the building.
Barredo said witness evidence indicated that two men exited a white SUV that was stopped outside the consulate around 4:30 a.m. ET, shot a handgun at the front of the building and then drove away.
While there were people in the building at the time of the shooting, police say no one was injured.
SYNAGOGUE SHOOTINGS
The consulate shooting follows three separate incidents last week where gunshots were fired at synagogues in the Toronto area. No one was injured in those shootings. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the attacks "criminal antisemitic assaults."
Barredo said it's too early to draw a connection between the consulate shooting and those at the synagogues.
"We definitely will be looking at any possible connections. Obviously, it is far too early in this investigation, but we do not look at them in isolation," he said.
Canada's public safety minister described the consulate shooting as an unacceptable incident.
"The shooting ... is absolutely unacceptable. Canada will never tolerate intimidation and violence of any kind, including towards our American friends in Canada," Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in a post on X.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and was closely monitoring the situation in coordination with local law enforcement.
Separately, on Sunday, an improvised device exploded in Norway at the U.S. embassy in Oslo, and police were still searching for a suspect, with a possible link to the Iran war among the lines of inquiry.
In New York City, two men have been charged with terrorism after throwing a homemade bomb at anti-Islam protesters over the weekend.
(Reporting by Caroline Stauffer and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, Susan Heavey and Katharine Jackson in Washington and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Andrew Heavens and Sharon Singleton)
