MANDEL: ‘Heart never mends,’ mother of slain Toronto cop Todd Baylis says

Constable died almost 32 years ago to the day in same neighbourhood where Marc Pinizzotto was slain Thursday

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Published Jun 11, 2026  •  3 minute read

Const. Todd Baylis was shot to death in 1994 in the same neighbourhood where Const. Marc Pinizzotto was slain while serving a search warrant on Thursday, June 11, 2026.

The tragic news came just six days before the anniversary of her eldest son’s murder.

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Another Toronto Police officer killed in the line of duty; another beloved son gunned down in the same west-end neighbourhood where Const. Todd Baylis was killed and where a road now bears his name.

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“It’s horrible,” said Sharon Baylis, reached at her home outside of Toronto. “It’s coming up to the day that Todd was killed and it’s just horrible.”

It’s hard to believe it was 32 years now, on a hot and muggy night on June 17, 1994, when Baylis, 25, and partner Michael Leone encountered Clinton Gayle while they were on patrol in the public housing complex at 710 Trethewey Dr.

The violent Jamaican-born crack dealer, on bail and under a two-year-old deportation order that no one had bothered to execute, was armed with a stolen semi-automatic handgun and a determination not to get caught. So Gayle punched Baylis in the chest, shot Leone in the shoulder and back and, as Baylis lay on the ground, the heartless gunman placed his firearm no more than six inches from his temple and pulled the trigger.

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A police command post on Trethewey Dr. outside the apartment where Const. Marc Pinizzotto died is seen here in a 2025 file photo after a boy was killed in the same building. The sign mentions Const. Todd Baylis, who was gunned down on June 17, 1994. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun

2nd officer nearly died in 1994 slaying

Leone almost met the same fate, but luckily Gayle’s gun jammed.

We know little of the details that cost Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, his life on Thursday morning as police were conducting a search warrant at a building on Martha Eaton Way, near Black Creek and Trethewey Drs., related to the shootings at the U.S. Consulate. 

For Baylis’s mom, it brings back a rush of memories that never have to travel far, as they are always there, just below the surface. She remembers the huge outpouring of sympathy from the public and the police — something that also began immediately in the wake of Pinizzotto’s death. “It’s nice to have the support, but nothing really helps,” Sharon admitted. “It’s something you don’t really get over. You don’t. Your heart never mends.”

For her surviving son Cory, the news of another officer down is met with fury.

“Absolutely nothing’s changed down there,” said the 55-year-old teacher. “This is what happens when the government goes soft on crime. Criminals have no fear. Zero. Because they know how soft the system is on crime. They pander to different groups and people end up getting killed.

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“It shouldn’t have happened.”

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‘You never get over it’

In addition to anger, he is consumed with empathy for what lies ahead for Pinizzotto’s family: Not just the pain of loss, but the powerlessness that comes with being thrust into the public eye and then being forced to spend years dealing with the justice and parole systems. “I know what they’re going through and I know what’s coming,” he said.

“I hope to hell the guy dies in the hospital — that will save the family a whole lot of agony and grief for the next 20 to 30 years.”

More than three decades later, Cory is still attending parole hearings and fighting to ensure Gayle isn’t released.

His elderly mother aches for Pinizzotto’s wife and twins and the rest of their family, but would never dare offer advice on how to deal with their sorrow. “Everybody has their own way of grieving. It takes time — but you never get over it.”

It is a month of grieving for the widow: Not only the anniversary of her son’s murder next week, but Friday marks four years since her husband Ted passed away. The retired Toronto Police detective never really recovered after their boy was killed.

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Sharon was asked if she worried about their son following his father’s career with all its inherent danger and potential for harm. “I told him many times,” she sighed, “but we can’t choose our children’s footsteps. It’s something he wanted to do. It sure hasn’t gotten any better out there.”

And now another Toronto Police officer has been cut down.

“My heart goes out to the family,” she said. “Time will ease the pain, but it will never heal the heart.”

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