Toronto Police Officer Gets 6 Years for Fatal Shooting of Teen

In a surprising decision, an Ontario court sentenced Toronto police Constable James Forcillo to six years in prison for the attempted murder of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.

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Forcillo fired a total of nine shots at Yatim in 2013 while the teenager was aboard a streetcar while high on ecstasy.

While convicted for attempted murder, Forcillo was found not guilty of second-degree murder.

On Thursday, Justice Edward Then ruled that the second round of shots fired by the officer, after the teen was paralyzed and dying on the ground, were "unnecessary, unreasonable, and excessive."

The fatal shooting was captured on video and drew people to the streets in protest, just as outrage in the United States rose over the cases of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and other instances of police brutality.

In a city where cops are rarely charged with murder, only seven, have faced murder or manslaughter charges. Forcillo is the first to be convicted in the last 25 years.

Nabil Yatim, Sammy Yatim’s father, believes that if police officers in the province of Ontario received more training on “how to use words instead of weapons,” his son would be alive today, the Toronto Star reported.

“I’m almost positive he would be,” he said.

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Forcillo’s conviction comes on the heels of a much-anticipated investigation by Ontario’s ombudsman, Paul Dubé, which looked into how police are trained on the use of force in the province.

Dubé’s report found that since Sammy Yatim’s death, 19 more people have been shot dead by police in Ontario, most of whom were people in crisis.

His 90-page report, which includes 22 recommendations on improving police conduct, concludes that police brutality occurs not because officers aren’t following their training, but because they are following it.

Among its more troubling findings was that constables in Ontario get far less basic training than anywhere else in Canada—just 12 weeks at the Ontario Police College, compared to 24 weeks for new recruits of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.