Coroner rejects theory teen died in ‘suicide by cop’

An Ontario coroner has rejected a former Toronto cop’s 11th-hour move to have the fatal shooting of Sammy Yatim considered a possible “suicide by cop” at an upcoming coroner’s inquest.

James Forcillo — the ex-cop convicted of attempted murder in the killing of 18-year-old Yatim on a streetcar in 2013 — cannot introduce evidence to jurors at the coroner’s inquest that the teen may have intentionally provoked a fatal police response, the coroner said.

“There is no direct evidence that suggests that Mr. Yatim wished to end his life by way of a confrontation with police,” wrote coroner Dr. David Cameron in a 21-page decision released Thursday. “Exploring the phenomenon of ‘suicide-bycop’ is unnecessary and, as such, expert evidence will not be tendered in relation to this issue.”

A coroner’s inquest is a non-criminal proceeding to expose the details of someone’s death and produce recommendations to prevent future fatalities. They are mandatory in Ontario for certain deaths, such as when someone is killed by police, and they are overseen by a coroner and heard by a jury of five citizens.

Last November, just hours before the inquest was set to begin, Forcillo’s lawyer Bryan Badali filed a motion asking that he be allowed to explore the possibility Yatim had intended to die by suicide through provoking a fatal police shooting. Badali wanted to file evidence including text messages and Google searches by Yatim — including one made seven months before his

death — to help jurors understand the teen’s state of mind.

Cameron disagreed, taking the side of the Yatim family and a succession of inquest parties, including the Toronto Police Service, that blasted Forcillo’s motion as “outrageous” and without merit during a hearing last November.

The coroner called the cellphone evidence “unreliable” and unhelpful due to how dated some of the searches were. Cameron also ruled against Forcillo’s request to admit expert evidence on the “suicide by cop” phenomenon at the inquest.

A new date for the inquest has not yet been set.

Yatim died on July 27, 2013, after he was shot eight times by Forcillo inside a streetcar. Police had been called after Yatim pulled out a knife and exposed himself; by the time Forcillo fired his weapon Yatim was alone on the streetcar.

A jury convicted Forcillo of attempted murder — a result of the decision by Crown prosecutors to split his nine shots into two distinct volleys and separate criminal charges. He was sentenced to six years in prison, granted full parole in 2020, and resigned from Toronto police in 2018.