WARMINGTON: Toronto guns-for-hire scheme included $1,000-per-shooting payday

Teens were contacted via phone apps — similar to ordering a pizza — and paid by someone, somewhere; Cops' focus now is finding those answers.

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Published Jun 17, 2026  •  4 minute read

Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT) synagogue on Clark Ave., in Thornhill, was targetted by gunfire late on Friday, March 6, 2026. Photo by Supplied

For a cool grant per job, people were anonymously ordering up the shooting of Jewish, American and Toronto business targets the same way you order a pizza.

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It was that easy. And these orders were being delivered devastatingly hot.

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The going rate to hire a teen gunman over a phone app to shoot up whatever target a criminal or terrorist element wants? According to multiple sources, it was often a $1,000-per-shooting assignment.

Tax-free, too.

It’s known these young thugs were being handsomely paid to spray bullets at their targets. What police have not yet revealed is who paid them, and where they and their money come from. Local GTA customers, or international?

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said his detectives are “following every lead” to find out “who is paying for this?”

$1,000 per-shooting job

Until these answers are known, Toronto is in crisis because this form of terrorism, payback, and intimidation procurement business is not all that expensive for those wanting to terrify.

At a fee of an average $1,000 a job, these thugs who have terrorized the Jewish community, or sent a statement to the American government for its support of Israel, were making money with their shooting-for-hire business.

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Following the death of Toronto Police Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw addresses media at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto on Thursday, June 11, 2026. ERNEST DOROSZUK/TORONTO SUN Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun

Lots and lots of money.

“Very lucrative,” said one police officer on the case.

At that rate, it is conceivable, based on those two guns alone seized by Toronto Police in raids on Martha Eaton Way a week ago, that the teens involved could have netted $27,000. Hardly worth the life of Const. Marc Pinizzotto, who was shot to death while part of an Emergency Task Force team executing a search warrant.

Shooting racket busted but who paid for service still unknown

Now that someone has died in this madness, a police officer in particular, the gig is up. Three teens have been arrested and are facing charges and a fourth is facing a manhunt. The allegations against Nicholas Bennett, 18, Jayon Burgher, 18, Zara Jabbi, 19, and Sheldon Tracey-Stewart, 18, have not been tested in a court of law. They are to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

This enterprise is shut down. And the style of doing business is not going to be as easy to pull off anymore either.

But the damage is already done.

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Several synagogues have been shot up, as well as the U.S. consulate and many properties connected to the GFL case, which included innocent victims of these dastardly crimes as well. Even some residences and businesses that had nothing to do with anything find themselves ducking rounds being fired from masked gunmen.

Sheldon Tracey-Stewart, 18 Photo by supplied /Toronto Police

“These guys (allegedly) were getting an address through encrypted messages where they were told where to shoot and how much they would receive,” said a source close to it. “The problem is, sometimes they got the right address and sometimes they got the wrong one.”

Zara Jabbi, 19, is wanted in connection with the shooting at the U.S. Consulate on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Photo by Handout /Toronto Police

Police are investigating these kids who, sources say, would sit around and play shooting video games and “wait for an address” and then go off and light it up — not understanding or caring about the cause or purpose.

Same as ordering from a vehicle ride-share app

They were delivery men for terror, operating in a way that resembled ordering a ride-sharing vehicle, or delivery service.

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Jayon Burgher, 18 Photo by supplied /Toronto Police

But these criminals were, allegedly, delivering bullets.

Police believe they were paid digitally, which makes it hard to trace. But not impossible. If this money was brought in somehow from a foreign location, and funneled through a middleman in the GTA, there are ways to track it.

They were able to track down these alleged punks and some teens connected to a murder-for-hire hit on a tow trucker Sulakshan “Sully” Selvasingam, who was slain at a gas station July 6, 2024, as the Sun‘s Michele Mandel covered Thursday.

Now that they understand the scheme, police are sniffing around. There is lots there to work with. It is believed there may be up to 100 cases involving people hiring teen shooters to do their political, religious or business dirty work.

With that many alleged crimes, a trail is not only left behind but can also be picked up by highly trained police.

First responders salute during a procession for slain Toronto Police Const. Marc Pinizzotto, whose body was transported Sunday, June 14, 2026, from the Centre of Forensic Sciences to a funeral home in Thornhill, Ont. Photo by YouTube

So far, police have arrested some teens for their alleged part in this, which includes one of these guns potentially being used to allegedly slay Pinizzotto. The one charged with first-degree murder in that homicide is still recovering in hospital but will at same point face charges.

Next for police will be trying to determine who it was who hired them and paid them.

Stay tuned. If police are able to use today’s technology to build a case, the $1,000 per shooting they allegedly paid some kids to do will be far less than their lawyer fees.

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