TORONTO – A Toronto police officer involved the shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim in an empty TTC streetcar last month was arraigned on a second degree murder charge during a brief court appearance Tuesday morning.
Ontario’s police watchdog announced the charge on Monday against Constable James Forcillo, who allegedly shot the teen multiple times.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) made arrangements with Forcillo’s lawyer, Peter Brauti, for the officer to surrender to the SIU this morning.
Forcillo was then taken to Old City Hall for his first court appearance where a closed judicial pre-trial has been set for Sept. 30.
A bail hearing is expected to take place later in the afternoon at a different location.
“He’s very upset and in shock quite honestly and as I said it’s been very trying on him and his family and very stressful,” said Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack outside the courthouse Tuesday.
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“We’re disappointed. It’s never good when we have one of our officers charged especially when it’s a charge like second degree murder. But, we’re a professional group of people and we’ll get through this.”
The Yatim family said in a statement released Monday afternoon they want to hold all those responsible for Sammy’s death accountable.
“Our family hopes that the SIU investigation will continue looking into the actions of the supervising police officer(s) and the other officers in attendance for their lack of intervention in this tragedy,” the statement read. “Over 20 uniformed police officers were present and no one stepped forward to stop the gun shots or offer any mediation.”
Amateur footage by witnesses of Yatim’s shooting captured the sound of police officers shouting several times for Yatim to “drop the knife.”
Nine shots can be heard on the videos with the final six shots appearing to come after he had already fallen to the floor of the streetcar.
Appearing on Global’s The Morning Show Tuesday, legal analyst Lorne Honickman insisted more answers will come out surrounding the case now that it is before the courts.
“For example, witness statements, statements from other officers, statements from civilians, forensic evidence of what actually happened during the shooting — all of that will come out eventually and we’ll get those facts,” Honickman said.
But the big question remains whether or not Cst. Forcillo can be convicted of the second degree murder charge, which is rarely filed against police officers.
“In order for somebody to be convicted, the Crown would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they had the intent to kill or the intent to cause bodily harm that they knew would likely lead to death,” said Honickman.
Yatim’s death sparked outrage across the city and on social media, with more than 30,000 people signing a petition calling for criminal charges to be laid against the officer.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin announced earlier this month his office will be investigating police policies for defusing crisis situations.
READ MORE: List of Ontario cops charged with murder, manslaughter
Police Chief Bill Blair announced last week that retired judge Dennis O’Connor would help him in a separate review of police use of force in dealing with emotionally disturbed persons.
-with files from The Canadian Press, Mark Carcasole and James Armstrong
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