Seems like only yesterday we were talking about Sammy Yatim.
On Friday, December 13, at around 8 pm, another 18-year-old who seemed to be in mental distress was shot by police, this time on a subway car stopped at the Queen station.
What we know about the incident is that at least nine officers were on the scene. Four of them fired, reportedly up to 15 shots.
The victim, name unknown (reportedly because the family would like to keep it that way), was carrying a “weapon,” according to a spokesperson from the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the civilian-led agency charged with investigating incidents involving police where there has been a death or serious injury.
The victim’s weapon, however, was described as a “toy gun” by others.
Several witnesses reported overhearing him tell police that he had nothing to live for. More than one described him as “calm” and “non-threatening.”
He’s now said to be in stable condition in hospital after early reports that he was suffering from life-threatening injuries. According to the SIU, he sustained “several” gunshot wounds.
From official channels, the details about what happened are sketchy. Most of what we know has come from social media, people who were in the station at the time and took to Twitter to describe the incident.
Welcome to the internet age, when news travels faster than a speeding bullet and when, for police, public scrutiny is magnified.
The strict rules of engagement that govern the relationship between the police and the SIU mean that a tight lid is kept on investigations. How much that will change now that the unit has a new director – former Crown attorney Tony Loparco took over in mid-October – remains to be seen. Historically, change at the top at the SIU hasn’t resulted in a measurable increase in police accountability. Thus, more of the responsibility for police oversight may fall to the citizenry, their smartphones at the ready.
July’s Yatim shooting, caught on a nearby security camera and the cellphones of passersby, caused public outrage, protests in the streets and calls for better police training. Second-degree murder charges were eventually laid against Constable James Forcillo.
If there’d been no videos or viral accounts by witnesses on the scene, would those charges have been laid?
On Sunday, December 15, some 60 protesters from Disarm Toronto Police took to the streets in an “emergency rally” to demand the disarming of frontline officers.
The group burned a pig in effigy outside the Queen subway station (I’m told that part wasn’t planned), but if they want to bolster their case, the best evidence is the statistics. Eight people have been shot to death by police since 2011.
The fact that four officers fired in Friday’s incident suggests they made little effort to de-escalate the situation, and that supposition isn’t a stretch. The police track record when dealing with the mentally ill is bad and seems to be getting worse.
At the Ontario Coroner’s Complex at Keele and Wilson, an inquest into the deaths of Reyal Jardine-Douglas in 2010, Sylvia Klibingaitis in 2011 and Michael Eligon in 2012 has been going on since October. All three were killed by police. All three were suffering from mental illness at the time.
Video of the Eligon shooting, released only last month, was captured by the dashboard camera of a police cruiser called to the scene. The officer who shot Eligon, Constable Scott Walker, seems to have put himself in a compromising position – backed up against a van parked on the street, with seemingly no avenue of retreat.
At the crucial moment, eight police officers are lined up in front of Eligon as he’s walking toward them with a pair of scissors in each hand. Four have their guns drawn. Police have said they had no option but to shoot.
It’s their standard refrain. We may hear it again apropos of Friday’s shooting. But this time the victim is alive and might have something to say. And so might the witnesses who reportedly caught this near-tragedy on video.
enzom@nowtoronto.com | @enzodimatteo
