Forcillo’s trial sees video of Yatim shooting in court

TORONTO — A video capturing the fatal shooting of a teen on an empty streetcar has been played for a jury at the trial of the Toronto police officer charged in the youth’s death.
Const. James Forcillo has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and attempted murder in the death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim — an incident that sparked public outrage in the city.
A black and white video with no audio, taken from a surveillance camera pointing at the front doors of the streetcar where Yatim died, shows the teen getting on the vehicle late one night in July 2013.

Yatim can be seen wearing a baseball cap and holding a backpack as he enters the streetcar, pays his fare and walks to the back.
About ten minutes later, passengers can be seen running towards the front doors, squeezing up against one another until the streetcar stops, the doors open and they pour out, followed by a steadily moving Yatim, who is seen holding a small knife in his right hand.
Yatim can be seen yelling through the doors, waving his hands, though he remains on the streetcar and continues holding the knife. At one point he is seen talking with the streetcar driver, who only leaves the streetcar after speaking with Yatim for some time.
The video then shows Yatim in some sort of exchange with two police officers on the street — one of them has a gun pointed at him — and about a minute later, Yatim’s body crumples and falls to the ground, where he twitches repeatedly.
The jury has already been told that after a standoff of about 50 seconds in which Forcillo shouted repeated commands for Forcillo to drop his knife, the officer fired three bullets which hit Yatim, and then, after about five seconds, fired another six bullets.
Crown prosecutors have said they plan to prove that Forcillo’s actions in the incident were neither necessary nor reasonable.
Forcillo’s lawyer has said he will be arguing that the officer’s actions were justified and carried out in self-defence.
The jury has also been told that an autopsy found Yatim had consumed the drug ecstasy before he boarded the streetcar where he died.