Crown paints Sammy Yatim's killer as juvenile bully of a cop

Const. James Forcillo: Bully, hothead, liar.

And, if Crown attorney Milan Rupic can convince a jury: Murderer.

The mild-mannered prosecutor wasted no time getting to the searing crux of his case against the Toronto officer charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.

Before addressing the nuts and bolts of witness testimony, of audio and video evidence that captured the lethal July 2013 confrontation as the knife-wielding teenager stood at the front of a Dundas streetcar and Forcillo fired off nine rounds from the street, Rupic gave jurors an astonishingly harsh summation of the why and the how Crown theory of a shooting that ignited public outrage across the city.

“The reason that Sammy Yatim was shot is because he violated the ultimatum put to him by the defendant, ‘You take one step in this direction and I’ll f-----g shoot you, I’m telling you right now,’ ” said Rupic, condemning the accused with his own words.

It was the cop, not the victim, who unnecessarily escalated that showdown, Rupic emphasized. Because Yatim was defiant and called Forcillo a“pussy,” provoking an “emotional tug-of-war with the teenager over who was in control.”

But that was no reason for the officer to discharge his Glock in two volleys, the second burst of six shots when Yatim was already on his back, spine shattered and perishing from a bullet that had struck his heart.

Yatim’s cocky posture in the face of repeated commands that he “Drop the knife!” was appalling, Rupic acknowledged. But he’d uttered no threats, evinced merely “sarcastic teenage bravado.” This, said Rupic, is what enraged Forcillo and got Yatim killed.

“But he did not deserve and he did not need to be shot.”  (more...)

Crown paints Sammy Yatim's killer as juvenile bully of a cop