Toronto cop sentenced
James Forcillo given six years in shooting of teen on streetcar
A Toronto police officer who gunned down a troubled teen on an empty streetcar three years ago abused his authority in a way that undermines public trust in law enforcement and the justice system, a judge said Thursday in sentencing him to six years in prison.
In letting loose a second volley of shots on 18-year-old Sammy Yatim, Const. James Forcillo committed an “egregious breach of trust” and his sentence must serve as notice to other police officers that they should open fire “only as a last resort,” Justice Edward Then told a Toronto court.
The sentence “should not be taken to reflect adversely on the well-deserved reputation of the Toronto Police Service nor diminish in any way the respect and support individual police officers deserve for the dangerous and important work they do,” he said.
“However, when a police officer has committed a serious crime of violence by breaking the law which the officer is sworn to uphold, it is the duty of the court to firmly denounce that conduct in an effort to repair and affirm the trust that must exist between the community and the police to whom we entrust the use of lethal weapons within the limits prescribed by law.”
Murmurs rippled through the packed courtroom as Then delivered the sentence. The disgraced police officer, wearing a dark suit, stood straight and stone-faced as he was handcuffed.
Yatim’s parents looked at Forcillo, then turned to one another in silence. But outside the courtroom, Sahar Bahadi, Yatim’s mother, said she remained outraged.
“He destroyed our family, he will destroy our lives,” she said. “But he didn’t show any kind of remorse.”
“I am always angry. Since I lost my son, I am always angry. I have screams inside me and I have to control myself.”
His father, Nabil Yatim, said he hopes the ruling will bring about change so that no other family has to suffer as theirs has.
Yatim’s death on July 27, 2013, sparked public outrage in the city after a cellphone video of the shooting went viral.
Then said the cellphone video was “powerful evidence” that what Forcillo said occurred on the streetcar that night did not actually happen.
The judge spent almost 90 minutes dissecting the evidence that came to light during the trial, delivering a series of stinging rebukes to Forcillo’s conduct, saying his actions constituted “a fundamental failure to understand his duty to preserve all life, not just his own.”
Forcillo did not mistakenly believe that Yatim was getting up after being struck with a first volley of bullets, as the officer testified in court, Then found. Instead, he based his decision to fire again entirely on the fact that Yatim had managed to recover his knife, he said.