Officer had alternatives, force expert tells court

Constable ‘made no effort’ to start a dialogue with Sammy Yatim, trial hears

The night Sammy Yatim was shot dead on an empty streetcar by Const. James Forcillo could have gone differently if Forcillo and other officers at the scene had used any of several alternatives to lethal force, including de-escalating the situation, a Crown expert on police use-of-force tactics testified Wednesday.

The jury has seen and heard that a 50-second standoff took place with Forcillo, gun drawn, repeatedly commanding 18-year-old Yatim to drop the four-inch knife he held in his right hand. Forcillo finally said: if you take a step forward you will be shot.

Yatim took a step toward the front of the streetcar, and Forcillo fired nine times in two volleys of bullets, the jury has heard.

Forcillo has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and attempted murder, maintaining that his use of lethal force on July 27, 2013, was justified and that he was acting in self-defence.

On Wednesday, Robert Warshaw, a U.S.-based former police chief, testified that Forcillo had many alternatives to using lethal force.

“Officer Forcillo took a position facing Mr. Yatim and, in my judgment, made no effort to have any interaction with Mr. Yatim for the purposes of creating a dialogue, for the purposes of learning anything that was on this young man’s mind,” said Warshaw, who has been appointed by the U.S. to reform several American police departments with problems in excessive use of force.

“All of those opportunities to deescalate the situation just never materialized. There was no effort.”

This, despite Toronto police training on use-of-force, de-escalation and interacting with people in crisis being applauded by Warshaw as “progressive, thoughtful and consistent with modern police agencies in the United States,” the trial heard.

In particular, Warshaw criticized the brief time that elapsed between the arrival of police on scene and Forcillo shooting Yatim.

“There was no single asset to Officer Forcillo that was more valuable than time,” he said.

Yatim was already contained on the streetcar and posed no risk to others, and neither said nor did anything to suggest he would imminently attack, Warshaw said.

The more time that elapsed, the more options Forcillo would have had to choose from — including access to a Taser or the resources of the Emergency Task Force, he said.

“The more officers that arrived, the greater the opportunity for police to come up with a de-escalation plan or a tactical plan,” Warshaw said.

“There was no action plan, there was no tactical thinking, no co-ordinated effort as far as I could see,” he said. Warshaw also criticized Forcillo’s use of profanity in his command to Yatim to “drop the f--king knife.” He described such language as a “relic of days gone by” and specifically discouraged in many places.

The alternative approaches suggested by Warshaw included verbal communication intended to cool an emotional situation starting with questions such as: “What’s your name, what seems to be the problem, is there someone I can call, are you having any issues? Son, this situation is not at an irreversible point in time, can we talk about this? Do you need a drink of water?”

Other alternatives for Forcillo suggested by Warshaw: Closing the streetcar doors using a switch on the streetcar exterior; having an officer fire a burst of pepper spray into the streetcar using the rear doors or the front doors to disorient Yatim, with a police baton then thrown at or used to knock Yatim’s legs out; using a bicycle or police cars to block the streetcar doors; waiting for an officer with a Taser to arrive and more.

Warshaw testified that the tactical alternatives such as using pepper spray carry some risk for officers and might not work.

The trial continues.