“The worst day of my career.”
That is how Insp. Peter Morris, the acting superintendent of Toronto Police Service’s Emergency Task Force (ETF), describes the moment he received a phone call letting him know that one of his on-duty officers had been killed.
“I knew something was bad right away when my phone rang. It’s not something a unit commander ever wants to have to pick up a phone and get that message,” he told CP24 during an emotional Tuesday morning interview.
“I spent a lot of years on the (ETF) teams and leading teams there, and you never think that this can happen to us, to our guys.”
On June 11, 43-year-old Const. Marc Pinizzotto, a highly trained tactical officer, was executing a search warrant at an apartment building in North York when gunshots rang out striking him. He died in the hospital a short time later.
Pinizzotto, who served with the ETF for more than five years, was part of a team executing five search warrants in relation to multiple shootings in the city, including one at the U.S. Consulate.
His death marks the first time in the 64-year history of the unit that one of its members has been killed in the line of duty.
On Wednesday, thousands of people are expected to gather at the Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke to pay their respects and lay the slain officer, a married father of 14-year-old twins and former elite hockey player, to rest.
Morris and Supt. Ron Taverner, of 23 Division, with the blessing of Pinizzotto’s family, spoke exclusively with CP24 about their esteemed colleague, sharing details about how his death has impacted the ETF and the Toronto Police Service as a whole and providing insights about the kind of person Pinizzotto was.
Morris shared that it hasn’t been easy for him and his team to lose such a well-respected and well-loved colleague and dear friend to many.
“It’s good minutes and bad minutes at this point. I think small slivers of improvement are what we’re seeing and that’s from where I sit all the way down to the guys that were with Marc that day,” he shared.
“And I think those little gradual improvements are important and (they) will start to compound on each other. I don’t want to say move on but we will progress from what’s happened, honouring Marc.”
In the days to come, when things quiet down, Morris said he expects there will be some difficult moments. It will be then that his closely bonded team will have to pull together to lift each other up, he said.
‘We’re honouring Marc by not stopping working’
Many ideas are being floated about how to best pay tribute to Pinizzotto, Morris said, but for now the best thing they can do is to continue fulfilling their commitment to serving the people of this city.
“I think the one thing that people need to know is that we’re honouring Marc by not stopping working. Our guys and our teams have been back at it the following day, as much as we’re grieving and we’re struggling,” he said, adding that Pinizzotto will “never be forgotten.”
“That’s just a testament to the unit, to the culture, and the guys that work there. … I think that’s how we pay tribute. I think we look for improvements and enhancements to the things that we were doing, also as a tribute to Marc, and I think those small steps are what will carry us through.”
Morris said what happened shouldn’t be seen as a “lasting negative scar,” but instead as an opportunity to “look deeper at things and make sure that you know, again, the legacy of our unit is constant improvement.”
‘The best guy in every room’
Morris said Pinizzotto will be remembered as the “best guy in every room,” someone who easily interacted with people.
“He just had an impact on everybody, without having to force it, without having to manufacture something, he just had an easy way about him that left an impact on just about anybody he came across,” he said
“He built long-lasting relationships with people. He threw all of himself into the things that he was doing, you know, that’s what it is about Marc, it’s just that he could easily come into this room with a group of people he didn’t know, and he would be everybody’s friend when he left.”
As a colleague, he was diligent, Morris said, and “meticulous to some degree,” but also someone people wanted to be around.
‘We’re there for (Pinizzotto’s family) forever’
Those qualities, he said, are shared by Pinizzotto’s wife, Andrea, as well as his children, Dominic and Daniella. They’re being seen even under these most difficult circumstances, said Morris.
“I don’t know how their lives are going to look. They’re certainly going to be very different, you know. … What I do know is that they and their family are now an extension of our family, and whatever we can do to support them, not only the guys on that team, but our unit as a whole, we will be there for them,” he said.
Since Pinizzotto’s death, members of the ETF have shown up in a myriad of ways without being asked for Pinizzotto’s family, even stopping by his son’s hockey games to just offer their support.
“There’s nothing I can say today that I haven’t said to them. We loved Marc and we will honour him forever moving forward and we’re here for them for anything they need,” he said.
“I think they already know that we’ve been showing them that as a unit, but if there’s ever anything that any one of them needs to call for or needs help with, we are 100 per cent there for them, from cups of coffee to hanging out in our building to you need somebody to walk you to prom, or you know, our guys will do all of that, so we’re there for them forever.”
‘So devastating to so many people’
Over at 23 Division, near Kipling Avenue and Finch Avenue West in north Etobicoke, flags continue to fly at half-mast for Pinizzotto, who worked there for more than a decade. He also played on the division’s hockey team.
“This is probably one of the most emotional times I’ve had in my career, … So many people are affected by what happened and how it happened, and there’s no why it happened. That’s the very hard part,” shared Taverner, the division’s long-time commander.
“It was very devastating to get that news, to hear what happened, to hear an emergency run to the hospital and not knowing what the outcome will be. And then finally hearing what the outcome was. It was just so devastating to so many people.”
Taverner said Pinizzotto came to his division as a young officer and quickly developed several close friendships. He said the constable kept in close contact with many people he met at 23 even after they moved into other roles within the force.
“(Marc) was a very kind, generous man that people really related to in very many ways. … He knew how to engage with people very easily and get along with people,” the unit commander said.
Taverner called Pinizzotto’s tragic death “quite frankly heartbreaking,” especially seeing firsthand how deeply it has affected his close-knit network of family and friends.
“They loved him very much, cherished him, and you know, to see that and witness that is very difficult, not only for me personally but for a number of officers that are still here, that were here when Marc had his time here,” he said.
“A lot of them moved on to other things in policing but they’re still all very close. They have their annual fishing trips and play hockey together. There’s so much emotion that’s here, and I’ve had officers, seasoned officers, in my office that are in tears, crying, that are full of emotions. There’s just no way to console people sometimes.”
Taverner went on to say that June 23, the day of Pinizzotto’s funeral, will be a very difficult day for many in the policing community.
“It’s going to be a lot of tears. There’s going to be a lot of emotion. There’s going to be a lot of camaraderie,” he said.
“There’s all kinds of things that are going to happen tomorrow that are going to be a tribute to Marc, but also some sad times, to say the least.”
