CFN – There is a vigil tonight in Toronto for Sammy Yatim, the young man brutally gunned down by Toronto Police Sunday July 28, 2013 while wielding a knife on a Streetcar.
You can click the image above to visit the official facebook page.
Enhanced video of the incident.
The SIU has updated their investigation as well as appealing for any witnesses or more video to be brought forward.
Update: SIU Continues Investigation into Toronto Shooting Death
Case Number: 13-TFD-181
Other News Releases Related to Case 13-TFD-181
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Mississauga (29 July, 2013) — Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim in Toronto this weekend.
Preliminary information indicates the following:
• Shortly after midnight on Saturday, July 27, 2013, Toronto Police Service officers were investigating a male – Mr. Yatim – on a street car on Dundas Street West, west of Bathurst Street;
• There was an interaction between Mr. Yatim and police, and he sustained multiple gunshot wounds. A conducted energy weapon was also deployed;
• Mr. Yatim was subsequently taken to St. Michael’s Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
The SIU has assigned six investigators and two forensic investigators to probe the circumstances of this incident. At this time, one subject officer and 22 witness officers have been designated. As part of the investigation, witnesses are being interviewed and video footage has been obtained. A post mortem was conducted on the weekend.
Anyone with video footage or who may have information regarding this case is asked to contact the lead investigator at 416-622-1965 or 1-800-787-8529 ext. 1965.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. Under the Police Services Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether an officer has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, lay a criminal charge against the officer if appropriate or close the file without any charges being laid
- report the results of any investigations to the Attorney General.
Looks more like a firing squad on this teenager
There is an old saying about bringing a knife to a gunfight. Cops are people the same as you or I. I have had the odd occasion in Toronto to be confronted by police with drawn weapons. I was at a bank ATM when the alarm at that bank went off. When I looked at one of the cop’s face and saw that he was more nervous than I was, I calmly raised my hands with open palms and quietly asked what was going on. A couple of questions were asked and answered politely and we were on our way.
I can only imagine what would have happened if I was confrontational with a nervous police officer holding a drawn gun. The investigation is on-going and we may never really know what caused this young man to die but I would not be too quick to accused the police of deliberately executing him.
Mr. Coffey we are living in a mighty crazy world today. This young man was in a culture shock and having lived in Aleppo Syria with the civil war enraging everywhere is enough to tear anyone to pieces. Many refugees living in Jordan, my husband’s Lebanon and a few other countries living in tents and squalor and many have tuberculosis, and the ancient problem with the skin (I forget the name for it just now) and many other diseases.
Cops have a terrible job especially in big cities. Here in Ottawa there is not a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t hear police, ambulance and fire go by and Toronto has a population of over 5 million people and way too big and so much so that many are leaving because of the crime and being too big and too expensive. Most likely that this young man needed help and didn’t get it and went kind of crazy and living in a new land did not know how to act. These people came to Canada to live in a better country and now look at what happened. Cops have their lives in their hands 24/7 but they should have known better how to subdue the young man without firing their guns. No matter what the outcome of this that cop or cops will have that memory on their minds for the rest of their lives and will haunt them.
I once shot a moose and it only took one shot,didn’t have to tazer it either