Why did cop shoot in Distillery District?
What THE HELL were they thinking?
Actually, not a they but a HE: The cop — one shooter, as Toronto police confirmed to the Star — who fired off about 14 rounds in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon, near a downtown intersection, across the street from a park used by children from a nearby elementary school and metres distant from a condo complex.
Listening to the barrage — BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG. . .BANGBANGBANG . . . BANG — whether on the video posted at the Star’s website or elsewhere on YouTube, it brings to mind, as a horrific audio replay, the 2013 shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim on a Toronto streetcar. That fatal encounter — nine shots fired — was captured by cellphone video and triggered public outrage. Yatim was allegedly wielding a knife.
Const. James Forcillo is facing charges of second-degree murder and attempted murder. Legal arguments are now underway, with jury selection scheduled to begin Sept. 30 and the trial following immediately afterward.
The killing of a teenager by a Toronto officer was dreadful in itself. But there was condemnation as well that such an event — all those bullets discharged — occurred on a public street as vehicles continued to drive by and pedestrians watched from the sidewalk.
Except to prevent an imminent death or injury, perhaps a hostagetaking, there is simply no justification for officers to discharge their weapons in the wide-open public domain, amidst civilians.
Bullets ricochet. They don’t always go where aimed. And firing at a suspect — or even a suspect’s car, as appears to be the case in Wednesday’s incident — might just provoke that individual to shoot back. Then there’s further mayhem and increased risk to bystanders, cops too.
As seen in the videos, the silver Toyota Corolla — hit at least a dozen times — was thoroughly boxed in by police cruisers before the shooting erupted. Witnesses told the Star two cop cars had rammed the target vehicle.
“He wouldn’t get out,” one person said. “The car was kind of pinned. (The driver) then revved the gas and, as so soon as he did that, the car wouldn’t go anywhere — and that’s when the cops opened fire.”
On Thursday, neither the commanding officer at 51 Division — this incident occurred at Parliament and Mill Sts., in the popular Distillery District — nor public affairs officers at police HQ would provide further information about what happened or why. As always when police discharge a weapon, there will be an incident report and professional standards look. That review has just been opened. Since nobody was injured, the special investigations unit doesn’t have a role to play here.
It’s known, however, that police received a call about a car stolen from the Bond and Shuter Sts. area around 12:05 p.m. and a vehicle was seen being driven erratically down Parliament. Cops gave pursuit.
A police chase in congested downtown Toronto is unwise, for starters. Pursuit regulations fall under the Police Services Act. In broad terms, police can initiate “apprehension” when they have reason to believe a crimina0l act has been committed or is about to be committed, and when there’s a need to identify the vehicle or its driver. Crucially, pursuits are justifiable when chasing “outweighs the risk to public safety.’’
That’s because police chases are inherently dangerous. There have been too many innocent civilians killed or injured during chases, and half the time those victims are the pursuing cops, according to most recent provincial statistics.
According to the SIU website, there were 11 vehicle deaths involving police cars in the province in 2013-14, and 33 injuries. Just this past March, two Toronto officers landed in hospital following a midtown chase, one from the collision and the other injured in the subsequent foot chase. What we had here on Wednesday was an apparent stolen car but no other crime that was known at the time. Police later identified the driver as Edward Michael Skotnicki. He’s been charged with one count each of theft over $5,000 (presumably the vehicle), possession of property obtained by crime (presumably the vehicle), flight while pursued by a police officer, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified. We know subsequently, from media search of databases, that the accused had been arrested in an earlier car chase, in 2007. In that appalling incident, a female officer was being dragged 25 metres alongside the truck Skotnicki was driving.
Police say the pursuing officers did not know this when they gave chase Wednesday. Even if they did, it should not have made a difference that one of their own had been hurt by Skotnicki. Further, did the pursuing officers obtain permission from a senior officer before engaging, as is required?
Cops have considerable latitude in deciding when use of force is necessary. A car is — certainly can be — a lethal weapon, just as a mentally unbalanced individual used a stolen snowplow to hit and kill Sgt. Ryan Russell following a 2011 chase. From the details available at this point, though, there appears to have been no pressing reason to have opened fire in Wednesday’s particular circumstances.
In Toronto, mercifully, police draw and fire their weapons infrequently. From Professional Standards use of force reports: 2013: Firearms discharged (intentionally): 41; firearm pointed at a person: 1,037; handgun drawn only: 211. 2014: Discharged: 24; pointed at a person: 917; drawn only: 186.
Nothing I could find for weapon drawn, aimed and fired at a vehicle, pointlessly. Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.