Toronto Const. James Forcillo charged in shooting death of Sammy Yatim

Daily Brew - Yahoo News blog ^ | August 19, 2013 | Matthew Coutts

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Ontario's police watchdog has laid charges in a Toronto streetcar shooting that resulted in the death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.

Yatim was shot while brandishing a knife on board an empty streetcar last month, while in a standoff with police. As many as 23 police officers were at the site of the shooting, according to the Ontario Special Investigations Unit.

Video of the incident captured the moment when nine gunshots were fired, including several once Yatim had collapsed to the ground. The SIU allege a conductive energy device was also used on the victim while he was being subdued.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Const. James Forcillo has been charged with second degree murder in the killing of a Toronto teen in July. I believe that this is just a sop to the public, who are upset that this man was shot 9 times and tasered on a streetcar. Not being a lawyer, but having briefly reviewed the Criminal Code of Canada, it seems that proving 2nd degree murder in this case, would be difficult. It would seem that 'Rambo' should have been charged with manslaughter, as he was negligent in his actions toward Yatim.

There have been multiple deaths during police operations in Toronto during the last several years, so it is a good thing that there will be an oversight investigation into the Toronto police. There is also a separate investigation on de-escalation tactics used by police in Ontario.

A follow on to this article.

[MeganC]

This was flat out murder and it’s good to see a police department go after this for a change. Usually they just say the most horrible things are ‘justifiable’ and this absolutely wasn’t.

Anyone who sees the video can see that the police officers were in no danger when the first three shots were fired. Then, after the suspect was down the cop fired SIX MORE shots into him and as if that wasn’t enough, another cop TASERED the corpse!

It was sickening and I hope justice is done.

[Squawk 8888]

To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

[Squawk 8888]

I think there’s definitely a case for manslaughter here, but 2-d murder would be hard to prove. The police are trained to shoot someone armed with a knife at the distance this guy was, but I can’t see any justification for the extra six shots and the taser.

[luvbach1]

Then, after the suspect was down the cop fired SIX MORE shots into him and as if that wasn’t enough, another cop TASERED the corpse!

The only thing they didn't do was pee on it.

[Squawk 8888]

And there was no dog to shoot.

[Forgotten Amendments]

I think there’s definitely a case for manslaughter here, but 2-d murder would be hard to prove.

I'm a total layman, but it seems that they over charge in a lot of these cases. Then, when their LE buddies skate, the onus is on the jury.

[brityank]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/19/toronto-police-officer-charged-with-second-degree-murder-in-streetcar-shooting-death-of-sammy-yatim/

has two Youtube videos - three shots, then six more (and the body twitching in response), then another officer moves in and uses a tazer.

Not often I think this - but I believe the cop should be charged with murder. He went way beyond shoot to stop.

[Dartman]

This was flat out murder and it’s good to see a police department go after this for a change.

Exactly. Enough said.

[Dartman]

This was flat out murder and it’s good to see a police department go after this for a change.

Exactly. Enough said.