Lawyers are already filing an appeal after a Toronto judge today handed down a six-year sentence to a police officer convicted in the shooting death of a teen on a streetcar in 2013.
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Forcillo did not mistakenly believe that Yatim was getting up after being struck with a first volley of bullets, as the officer testified in court, Then found.
Justice Edward Then said during the sentencing that the video was “powerful evidence” that what Constable James Forcillo said occurred on the streetcar did not happen. In the last 25 years, only seven, have faced murder or manslaughter charges.
“There’s never going to be any good outcome from this and it’s tragic all around”.
Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, the only official Canadian chapter of the movement, said police shootings are underreported by media in Canada because surveillance footage is not as accessible and data is not always compiled by race north of the border.
In a statement, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said the past three years has been hard for the families of Yatim and Forcillo.
Forcillo had been out on bail since being charged.
“I’m nearly positive he would be”, he said.
The public outrage over the July 2013 incident prompted the city’s police chief to launch a review of officers’ use of force and their response to emotionally disturbed people. While he said that wasn’t considered an aggravating factor in his sentencing decision, he also said there was no leniency as a result.
Then said he had “no choice” but to condemn the policeman to at least five years behind bars, the minimum mandatory sentence for attempted murder, which the judge called “one of the most serious crimes known to law”.
Crown prosecutors had sought an eight to 10 year sentence for Forcillo, while defense lawyers argued for two years of house arrest.
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Forcillo’s legal team has argued the mandatory minimum was never meant to apply to peace officers who legitimately carry a gun at the behest of the state in order to protect society. They also argued that Forcillo’s case appears to be “among the most egregious examples of unjustified violence by a police officer in Canada”.
