A photo of Sammy Yatim is held by one of the teen's friends at a Toronto courthouse after the sentencing of Const. James Forcillo in Toronto in 2016.Michelle Siu/The Canadian Press
Closing submissions have begun at a coroner’s inquest into the death of a teen who was shot by a Toronto police officer on an empty streetcar more than a decade ago.
Lawyers for Sammy Yatim’s family, for the Toronto Police Services Board and for a number of other parties will address the inquest’s jurors today and suggest recommendations they may make in an effort to prevent such deaths in the future.
Yatim, who was 18 at the time, was alone on a streetcar and holding a small knife when he was hit by two volleys of shots shortly after midnight on July 27, 2013.
The officer who shot him, then-Const. James Forcillo was found not guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the first volley of bullets, which court heard was fatal, but was convicted of attempted murder for the second volley, fired when Yatim was already on the ground.
Forcillo was sentenced to six and a half years behind bars and was granted full parole in 2020.
Jurors have been told that the inquest should focus on police decision making and best practices in dealing with people in crisis, and is not meant to re-examine the details of the shooting or Forcillo’s actions that night.