
James Forcillo, the police officer who has been accused of pulling his trigger nine times on 18-year-old Sammy Yatim last July, is back at work for the Toronto Police Service.In August, Forcillo was charged with second-degree murder for killing Sammy. In February, his suspension, which was required by Ontario law to be paid, was lifted and he returned to College St. police headquarters in a full-time administrative role, on the same salary as the one he had before the killing.
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Mike McCormack: A video is only one piece of a larger story. If we were just to judge on the video we wouldn’t see courts or evidence or anything else. The video just presents one viewpoint to speak to what people were feeling, what was happening, what happened before the video, what the officer’s perceptions were.
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It’s all part of the publication ban, so I can’t get into evidence of what’s to be presented at the preliminary hearing.What would you say to people who think the video shows Const. James Forcillo fatally shooting Sammy Yatim, who, standing with a small knife before 23 police officers, did not appear to be a threat, and that is evidence enough to convict Forcillo?
What you’re speaking to is exactly the problem here. The public is seeing the video and [the video] has entrenched the public’s perception or feelings. They [the public] have already judged and convicted Const. James Forcillo, for the most part, and that’s a pretty troubling scenario to me.What troubles you most about the reaction the public expressed through protesting James Forcillo’s killing of Sammy Yatim last July and again in August?
The public’s already seen the video and they’ve already made their judgment. That creates a problem: The public is jumping to conclusions, making assumptions about this officer and the way the officer behaved and what happened that night. [Those assumptions] are based on an incomplete picture. I shouldn’t be the only one that’s troubled by that. Everyone should be troubled by that.The video doesn’t paint an honest and forthright or full picture of what happened and it [the case] should be transparent and people should have the evidence and should hear the facts. But then [the public] ‘make an opinion,’ because everybody’s got an opinion. They could make their judgment based on facts—the total facts around an issue, not just [facts that are] one-sided. I don’t think anybody can say it’s a good idea to do that.
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If he gets committed to trial, at the completion of the trial if the publication ban is lifted then it will all become public information. We’ll see how the appropriate forum to assess the evidence, which, right now, is the courts, we’ll see what they come back with.Toronto police chief Bill Blair made the decision to lift Const. James Forcillo’s paid suspension, and Forcillo returned to work in February. Currently, he is working in a full-time position with the same salary he had before he shot and killed Sammy Yatim. What is he doing at work?
He’s not doing any police duties whatsoever. He’s on what I will call a super restricted duty, an administrative duty with no use of force options, and what I mean by that is no gun, no handcuffs. He doesn’t do any policing. He’s not involved with the public. He’s involved with doing tasks that are administrative in nature, that don’t jeopardize investigations, that don’t put the corporation at risk, that don’t put the public at risk. [His position] allows him to go into work, it allows taxpayers to continue paying him until the courts judge him for his actions.Setting his particular role aside, how should Sammy’s parents interpret that the officer who is charged with the murder of their son is back at work for the Toronto Police Service?
It’s not up to me to tell them how to interpret the return to work. All I can say is that I totally understand the way they feel. I empathize with that, and that’s an emotional feeling based on what has happened. [They way they feel] is a subjective thing without having all the facts surrounding that fateful evening, so I’m not going to try to take away from it.I have to work on facts and evidence. Const. James Forcillo is facing an allegation that’s before the courts right now. He hasn’t been convicted of anything. He’s being judged and people are saying, “Oh my god, how can this guy come back to work?” Well, he hasn’t been found guilty of anything.On the Toronto Police Association’s website, it says its fundamental purpose is to protect those who protect others. Who was Const. James Forcillo protecting when he shot Sammy Yatim?
This guy is a police officer who is out there responding to a call for service. He was responding to a call where it was a very high priority call with a weapon involved. He was protecting the public. Whether he made the right or wrong decision in how he did that, that’s up to the courts to decide. So don’t diminish what he did as a police officer, or his role as a police officer.Unfortunately, it’s a reality of policing. We’re forced to make decisions and forced into situations because we are out there working for the public, and then we’re going to be judged on those decisions. @kristy__hoffman