Family still grieving as inquest begins in teen’s 2013 shooting by cop

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Even after more than a decade, it’s still as shocking today to see knife-wielding teen Sammy Yatim being executed in hail of bullets on an empty streetcar by a trigger-happy Toronto cop who’d arrived on the scene just seconds before.

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The horrific video footage that captured the July 27, 2013 shooting was played for jurors Friday as the long-delayed inquest finally opened into the death of the 18-year-old.

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Former Toronto Police officer James Forcillo was acquitted in 2016 of second-degree murder for firing the initial three shots at Yatim but convicted of attempted murder for unleashing the second volley of bullets as the teen lay dying on the streetcar floor.

His life was ended when, as his grieving sister Sara Yatim would say, all the troubled teen needed was a hug.

Sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison, Forcillo was granted full parole in 2020.

And the future inquest witness had the gall to delay the proceeding, originally scheduled for November 2022, with his lawyer’s unsuccessful last-minute motion to have it include the possibility Yatim committed “suicide by cop.” 

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Still blaming the victim after all these years.

The inquest opened with emotional statements from Yatim’s family, their pain as raw today as it was when he was first taken from them.

“On that fateful July night, over 10 years ago, Sammy, who had just turned 18, ended up alone, somehow separated from his friends. He needed a phone to call me. He knew he was in trouble, and he knew that I could help him. He needed me, but I never had the opportunity to help him,” his father Nabil Yatim said in a statement read by his lawyer Ed Upenieks.

“Sammy did not deserve to die on that streetcar that night.”

During the trial, we heard Yatim had been in conflict with his dad at the time and was taking drugs. An autopsy showed he had MDMA, marijuana and cocaine in his system.

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Streetcar driver Chad Seymour, who’d only been on the job for 15 months, was on board that fateful night, alarmed by a rush of 30 panicked passengers who suddenly wanted off his vehicle.

Then he saw why – Yatim was advancing down the aisle, his exposed penis in one hand, a small knife in the other.

Unlike Forcillo, who opened fire within 50 seconds of arrival and said nothing except, “drop the knife, drop the f—-ing knife,” Seymour actually initiated a conversation with Yatim after they were left alone in the streetcar.

“Hey, is everything okay? What’s going on?” he recalled asking him. “He proceeded to tell me he wanted a phone.”

Unlike Forcillo, Seymour was remarkably calm and collected. He asked Yatim to take a seat and tried to keep him calm. He kept his knife on his knee but was “not threatening,” even reassuring him that he wasn’t planning on taking anyone hostage.

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He just wanted to call his dad.

Seymour told him he’d try and get him a phone. But when Yatim saw the flashing lights of the arriving police, he became agitated and threatening, so he fled as well.

And less than a minute later, Yatim was dead.

“For the past 10 years, I have not been well. I still am not well,” his sister Sara wrote in a statement read to the jury. “I fight every single day just to get out of bed. All that … for something that happened in less than a minute, for something that could have and should have been avoided.

“It should take several minutes for frontline officers to assess and de-escalate a situation to save a life, because it only takes less than a minute to take one.”

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Dr. Sahar Bahadi recalled her only son’s stunning smile, radiant green eyes and his ability to make everyone happy.

“He was our sunshine,” she told the jury.

Her lawyer Asha James asked how his death affected her.

“It paralyzed me,” Bahadi said simply. “Locked me in my grief and depression. Destroyed my life.”

She’s hoping the inquest will come up with recommendations to improve police training and offer support to victims’ families.

“It makes me angry and mad,” she said. “Sammy’s life mattered. People’s lives matter.”

“I’ll tell you what happened: a reckless police officer shot a teenager under stress nine times. He killed him instead of de-escalating him, protecting him and saving his life.”

The inquest continues next week.

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