Breaking News: Toronto Police Officer James Forcillo Charged With Second Degree Murder of Sammy Yatim.
Officer charged with murder in Sammy Yatim streetcar shooting
A Toronto police officer has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Sammy Yatim, the 18-year-old shot and killed in a streetcar last month.
A statement issued Monday from Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit — the province’s police watchdog — says the actions of Const. James Forcillo in the downtown Toronto incident this summer justify a charge of second-degree murder.
Forcillo, the officer who fired the shots, had been suspended from duty during the investigation.
Yatim was on a streetcar stopped on Dundas Street West, near Bellwoods Avenue, when he was shot dead in the early minutes of July 27.
Witnesses have said that Yatim was holding a knife while inside the empty streetcar.
Sammy Yatim, 18, was fatally shot by police aboard a Toronto streetcar in July. His sister Sarah tweeted this picture on Saturday with the caption, ‘Never forgotten… At least not to me.’ Sammy Yatim, 18, was fatally shot by police aboard a Toronto streetcar in July. His sister Sarah tweeted this picture on Saturday with the caption, ‘Never forgotten… At least not to me.’ (Twitter)
Nine shots can be heard on cellphone videos that captured the incident, following shouts for Yatim to drop a knife.
The final six shots appear to come after he had already fallen to the floor of the streetcar.
The shooting was recorded on video by several sources and viewed more than a million times on YouTube, galvanizing public anger and leading to a street protest that drew hundreds of people to the site of the shooting.
In addition to the SIU investigation, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair has said retired justice Dennis O’Connor will lead a separate review of police procedures, use of force and police response to emotionally disturbed people in the wake of Yatim’s death.
Ontario ombudsman André Marin has also launched an investigation that will probe what kind of direction the provincial government provides to police for defusing conflict situations.
The Toronto Police Association has urged the public not to jump to conclusions in the case, and told CBC News it is disappointed but not surprised by the charges against Forcillo.
Family to release statement
Shortly after news of the charges broke, Yatim’s sister tweeted, “The SIU charged the cop with 2nd degree murder!!! Good morning JUSTICE.”
The family is refusing requests for interviews, but is expected to release a statement to the media by 4 p.m. ET Monday.
Forcillo has spent six years as a member of Toronto’s police force, splitting that time as both as a uniformed constable and at court services at Old City Hall.
The SIU statement said Forcillo will surrender Tuesday, when he is also due to appear in court. The SIU statement said the location of the arrest won’t be disclosed because Forcillo has been the subject of threats.
Sign Petition To Have Toronto Police Officer James Forcillo Charged With Murder For Killing Sammy Yatim!!!!
Please sign the petition police officer James Forcillo should be charged with murder! Over 30,000 people have already signed the petition let your voices be heard spread the word!
Toronto Police Officers believe they are ABOVE THE LAW they can just go around shooting and killing people and getting away with it!
Police brutality is swept under the rug in Toronto due to the Toronto media ignoring the racism and the prejudice of the police force! I saw the video Sammy Yatim was brutally murdered he was shot nine times! Why? Why did James Forcillo shoot Sammy Yatim nine times? It was excessive force! Do not let the Toronto Police force get away with murder and police brutality! Sign the petition people spread the word!!!
Breaking News: Racist & Accused Child Killer George Zimmerman Lied To Judge Yet Bond Is Set At $1 Million Dollars.
George Zimmerman’s bond was set at $1 million (U.S.), and he was ordered to remain in Seminole County, Fla., while he awaits his murder trial, a judge ruled Thursday.
Zimmerman, Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said, “flaunted the system,” and appeared to be getting ready to flee with the “found money” he raised through online donations.
Zimmerman is charged with the Feb. 26 killing of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin.
“It appears to this court that … the money only had to be hidden for a short time for him to leave, if the defendant made a quick decision to flee,” Lester wrote. The defense attorney Mark O’Mara “presented no evidence to negate the court’s impression that the movement of funds and false testimony was to aid and assist the defendant in fleeing the jurisdiction.”
He said it looked to him that the only reason Zimmerman didn’t make a run for it was because he was tethered to an electronic monitoring device. His plans, Lester said, “were thwarted.”
“The increased bond is not a punishment,” Lester added. “It is meant to allay the court’s concern that the defendant intended to flee the jurisdiction and a lesser amount would not ensure his presence in court.”
READ MORE: Trayvon Martin shooting: New video shows George Zimmerman re-enacting fatal fight
Zimmerman had been free on $150,000 bail, but he was sent back to jail last month after his attorney revealed that the defendant had “misinformed” the court about how much money he had. That misrepresentation, the judge said, could be interpreted as a third-degree felony but he has not been charged.
“The state would more accurately describe it as—lied to,” Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda wrote in a motion last week to judge Lester.
Prosecutors provided bank records that showed that on April 20, the day of Zimmerman’s original bond hearing, he had $135,000 cash at his disposal, even as his family professed to be broke. Taped jailhouse phone calls between him and his wife showed he had instructed her to transfer money he had raised online out of his bank account into hers.
“Even though the defendant was in jail at the time, he was intimately involved in the deposit and transfer of money into various accounts,” de la Rionda wrote. “Defendant was directing the show and used his wife who willingly participated to complete the transfers. The state would argue the defendant didn’t just play a part. He was in control at all times and used his wife as a conduit to deceive the court.”
At the April 20 hearing, Shellie Zimmerman said under oath that she did not know how much money they had raised and had no assets. She has since been charged with perjury.
Prosecutors also said the taped calls show the couple talking about the whereabouts of Zimmerman’s second passport.
Lester revoked Zimmerman’s bond on June 1, and then the defense attorney requested another hearing.
In a three-hour hearing June 29, Zimmerman’s attorney argued that his client allowed the lie because he was confused and scared.
O’Mara presented videos, statements, a paramedic and medical records to show that his client likely would be exonerated of the second-degree murder charge. If Zimmerman never gets convicted of murder, O’Mara argued, it is unfair for him to spend a year in jail pending trial.
He had asked the court to again set bond at $150,000.
“As part of the defense team’s presentation on the Motion to Set Reasonable Bond, evidence was introduced to the court to show the weaknesses in the State’s murder case against Mr. Zimmerman and to support Mr. Zimmerman’s consistently maintained position that he acted in self defense,” O’Mara wrote on his website. “Further, we submitted evidence through the testimony of a forensic expert verifying that all the money in question has been properly accounted for.”
In his ruling, Lester dismissed O’Mara’s presentation as largely irrelevant. The three hours of testimony from a forensic accountant, a paramedic and others failed to explain why Zimmerman shifted funds around, the judge said.
He added that he could no longer consider Zimmerman’s “family ties” as a positive factor, as his family now showed it was willing to lie in court or allow a lie to stand without reporting the fraud. The bond needed to be set high, he said, because Zimmerman’s loss of money he never earned or saved would be of little consequence to him.
Trayvon and Zimmerman got into a physical altercation after the former neighborhood watch volunteer tailed the teen to see where he was headed. Zimmerman maintains that Trayvon broke his nose and slammed his head on the concrete, and that he was forced to shoot to save his life.
Prosecutors believe Zimmerman recklessly hunted the boy down because he had wrongly profiled Trayvon as a criminal.
CBC Breaking News: Murdered University Student Jun Lin’s Head Is Located In Montreal Park.
WARNING: GRAPHIC MATERIAL
CBC News
Posted: Jul 4, 2012 3:12 PM ET
Last Updated: Jul 4, 2012 4:31 PM ET
Jun Lin, a Chinese citizen, was studying at Montreal’s Concordia University. (Facebook)
Luka Rocco Magnotta. (Berlin Police)Montreal authorities have confirmed that a severed human head found in a city park over the weekend belongs to murdered Chinese student Jun Lin.A tip led homicide investigators on Sunday to Angrignon Park, a vast green space in Montreal’s south western region, where they found what appeared to be a human head, near a small lake.Forensic testing on the remains concludes that “what was found is actually related to the 11th homicide on our territory — that is, the Magnotta case,” said Montreal Const. Anie Lemieux.Toronto-area native Luka Magnotta has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other alleged offences in Lin’s death.
Lin was a Chinese national and Canadian resident who was a student at Montreal’s Concordia University until he disappeared in late May.
His torso was found shortly after in a Montreal trash pile, while other body parts were shipped to the offices of Canadian federal political parties and Vancouver schools.
Lin’s head remained missing until Sunday’s grisly discovery.
The 33-year-old student’s family travelled to Canada from China after his death, and have met regularly with Montreal authorities, who said finding the rest of his remains was a priority.
A private service was held last week at Concordia University.
Magnotta was extradited from Berlin, Germany after an international manhunt tracked him down in an internet café, where he was reading online news reports about himself.
The 29-year-old has requested a trial by judge and jury. His 10-day preliminary hearing, scheduled for March 2013, will be preceded by a pre-trial hearing in January.
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