Police Officer Charged in TTC Shooting Reaches Court

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Toronto police officer charged with second-degree murder offence in the controversially fatal shooting of Sammy Yatim, while he was alone in a streetcar last month, reached a downtown courthouse. The SIU, i.e. Special Investigations Unit Ontario’s police watchdog, stated that Const. James Forcillo entered police custody today at an undisclosed location in an arrangement made with his lawyer. A Twitter message published on Monday explained that SIU chose to allow secret surrender because death threats were allegedly made against Forcillo on social media. 30-year-old Forcillo reached at Old City Hall court a little after 8:30 a.m. ET.

The SIU announced on Monday that it has concluded to file second-degree murder charges against Forcillo for his actions that led to the July 27 shooting that killed 18-yeear-old Yatim. The incident was caught on camera and a video clip of the incident was viewed more than a million times on the internet. The video shows that the final six gun shots, out of the total nine, were fired after Yatim had already fallen to the floor of the streetcar, and then he was also Tasered.

Mr. Yatim’s family mentioned in a statement issued on Monday that they hope supervising officers and other officers present at the scene will also be examined “for their lack of intervention in this tragedy.” The family alleged that “over 20 uniformed police officers were present and no one stepped forward to stop the gun shots or offer any mediation.” It was stated that “moving forward we expect complete transparency and accountability. We want to work now to ensure that Sammy’s blood wasn’t wasted and to prevent any other families from enduring such a tragedy.”