In a disturbing turn of events, a gunman targeted the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on Monday, making it the second shooting at the diplomatic building this year, as verified by local authorities.

The crime scene revealed a solitary shell casing, and the building’s exterior suffered visible damage as a result of the gunfire.

Thankfully, no individuals sustained injuries during this alarming incident.

In an official statement, the consulate assured the public that “The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada remain open and operational, although some routine services for U.S. citizens in Toronto are being rescheduled.”

Toronto Deputy Police Chief Frank Barredo said there was a high-speed chase after the shooting that lasted an hour. However, no arrest was made and Barredo committed to continuing the search for those involved.

“We will approach this investigation with great seriousness,” Barredo said at a news conference. “We will bring the people responsible for this to justice.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow described the shooting as a “brazen attack.”

“I want to say to the person or persons responsible, we will get you,” she said.

This was the second shooting targeting the U.S. Consulate this year, with the first coming on March 10, when two suspects allegedly fired multiple shots at the building before driving away in a stolen vehicle.

Sheldon Tracy-Stewart, 18, and Zara Jabbi, 19, were arrested last month and charged with multiple offenses in connection with the March shooting. The allegations have not been tested in court.

A police presence has been seen at the consulate since the first shooting.

Barredo said a patrol vehicle was outside the consulate with its lights on when the shooting happened. Two security personnel were also in the building.

Last month, police said they believed multiple shootings, including the one in March, could be tied to “multilayered” gun-for-hire networks that have also targeted Toronto synagogues.

Two popular Jewish-owned bakeries were targeted by gunfire over the weekend.

Barredo said police had not ruled out a connection between Monday’s consulate shooting and the attacks on the bakeries. The motive for the consulate shooting remains under investigation.

“Investigators will follow the evidence to where it leads,” he said.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said he was “disgusted” by the recent violence in Toronto.

“I’m totally disgusted by the shootings and vandalism that took place in Toronto over the last few days, including at two Jewish-owned businesses over the weekend and near the U.S. Consulate this morning,” he said on X. “In all cases, active police investigations are underway. I expect all those responsible to be found, prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

As of Monday evening, Hurricane Genevieve, a powerful force in the Pacific Ocean, was making waves far from any coast, even as Tropical Storm Fausto lost strength but sent big swells crashing onto Hawaiian shores.

Early on Monday, Genevieve had swelled to a Category 5 hurricane, marking it as the first of such intensity in the East Pacific in two years, according to reports from the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasts suggested that Genevieve would steer clear of land, charting a path parallel to the Mexican coastline.

Packing a punch with sustained winds clocking in at 145 mph, Genevieve was monitored closely by the hurricane experts based in Miami.

The eye of Genevieve was positioned roughly 505 miles southwest of the Baja California peninsula’s southern extremity, advancing northwestward at a speed of 12 mph.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect, but the hurricane center said that swells from the storm — likely causing “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” — were affecting parts of Mexico’s southwestern coast and the Baja California peninsula.

Genevieve was expected to fluctuate in intensity before weakening later in the week.

Farther northwest in the Pacific, Hurricane Fausto weakened to a tropical storm Monday evening as it continued on a path in the general direction of the Hawaiian Islands.

Forecasters said Fausto is expected to pass north of Hawaii, but residents should still monitor the progress of the storm for impacts

Large surf and strong currents were increasing on east-facing shores along Hawaii’s islands, the hurricane center said.

Fausto had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

It was centered about 415 miles east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and traveling west-northwest at 16 mph.

James Comey, the former Director of the FBI, has made a formal request to a federal judge to throw out a criminal indictment against him. The indictment accuses him of allegedly making threats to harm President Donald Trump.

Comey challenges the legitimacy of the case, arguing that it defies ‘dictionaries, context, precedent, and common sense,’ dubbing it a ‘seashell-based federal case.’

The crux of the controversy is an Instagram post by Comey, his defense team explains, featuring seashells meticulously arranged on sand to form the numbers ’86 47.’ His lawyers insist this arrangement fails as evidence of a ‘true threat’ aimed at Trump, necessary for a criminal indictment.

According to Comey’s legal advisors, the combination ’86 47′ is a widely recognized political slogan that voices criticism of the president. For this reason, they claim it’s a form of political speech safeguarded by the First Amendment. 

His attorneys argue that ‘no reasonable observer’ viewing the post would deduce any violent intentions, much less imagine Comey himself posing a threat to the President. This assertion refutes claims made by Trump and his supporters.

Comey’s post was ‘mere political hyperbole, not a true threat,’ said the filing, submitted to the Eastern District of North Carolina. He faces federal trial in October.

In April, Trump slammed ‘dirty cop’ Comey for posting the number 86, which he said is a ‘mob term for “kill him.”‘

‘The mob uses that term to say, when they kill somebody, they say “86 that son of a gun” … They use another term, but that’s a mob term for killing,’ Trump explained.

Pressed on whether the post made him fear for his life, Trump said, ‘Probably, I don’t know.’

The phrase 86 generally refers to removing or getting rid of. And 47 refers to Trump being the 47th President. Past postings of the numerals by other political figures are now being resurfaced in light of the Comey case.

The motion to dismiss comes more than a year after Comey posted a photo of the shell arrangement on his Instagram page. 

He said he had encountered it while on a walk with his wife in North Carolina, and captioned the post: ‘Cool shell formation on my beach walk.’ Within hours, the post sparked intense backlash, and Comey removed it. 

Comey has denied any wrongdoing in posting the photo last year, noting at the time that his wife associated it with her time as a restaurant server, where the term ’86’ means taking something off the menu.

The former FBI director has maintained that the accusations and charges are the result of political animus by the commander-in-chief and his ‘bottomless desire’ to exact retribution against his public critics.

His lawyers echoed as much in their motion to dismiss. The government ‘now singles out Mr. Comey to prosecute one of the President’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition,’ they said. 

‘That attempt to suppress core political speech contravenes both the statutes at issue and the First Amendment.’

The filing, submitted to the Eastern District of North Carolina, marks the second time in as many years that Comey’s lawyers have sought to dismiss federal criminal charges that were brought against him during Trump’s second presidential term.

Comey was indicted last September in the Eastern District of Virginia on charges of lying to Congress and obstruction stemming from his testimony to lawmakers in 2020.

The charges were dismissed by a federal judge in November, who ruled that Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s former personal lawyer who brought the criminal case, was unlawfully appointed to the role. 

The court fight comes as Comey and Trump have sparred very publicly for years since Trump’s first presidential term.

Trump fired Comey in 2017, years before the end of his 10-year tenure as FBI director. 

Comey, in the years that followed, emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent and unsparing public critics – blasting him in his memoir and in congressional hearings as both unethical and ‘untethered to truth.’ 

If the seashell-based criminal case moves to trial, and Comey is convicted, he could face up to a decade in prison and up to $250,000 in criminal fines.

It is unclear if, or when, the federal judge in North Carolina might move on Comey’s motion to dismiss. A federal judge in Washington, DC, recently ruled that demonstrators whose flag had the same ’86 47′ message did not have to take it down, writing that ‘no reasonable observer could have viewed’ the numerical phrase as ‘a threat to the president’s life or physical safety.’

Martin Lederman, a Georgetown Law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, echoed this skepticism on Monday.

‘This should be one of the most easily and swiftly granted motions ever,’ Lederman said on social media, sharing a link to the full motion to dismiss. ‘The indictment is an embarrassment.’