The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Det. Sergeant Jason Dinsmore provides additional information on the January 2022 abduction of Elnaz Hajtamiri during a press conference in Mississauga on Jan. 12, 2023. A Toronto man, who police allege helped kidnap Elnaz Hajtamiri, has been arrested in the United States where he was also wanted for a deadly nightclub shooting.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
A Toronto man, who police allege helped kidnap Elnaz Hajtamiri, has been arrested in the United States where he was also wanted for a deadly nightclub shooting.
Ontario Provincial Police say the 36-year-old man was arrested in California by U.S. authorities on Monday.
Hajtamiri was last seen in January 2022 when Ontario Provincial Police say suspects in balaclavas and wearing fake police vests abducted her from her relative’s home in Wasaga Beach, Ont.
OPP have charged her ex-boyfriend with first-degree murder, as well as for Hajtamiri’s alleged “invasion-style” abduction and her alleged assault in a Richmond Hill parking lot just weeks before that.
The Toronto man arrested this week was also wanted by U.S. authorities for allegedly opening fire in a Miami nightclub, killing one man and injuring two women in what the U.S. Marshals Service called a targeted attack with a “gang nexus.”
OPP says investigators will continue to collaborate with law enforcement in the United States to further the investigation into Hajtamiri’s kidnapping.