Why Forcillo is guilty of attempted murder but not murder— even though Sammy Yatim died.
By Jon Singh and Eric Warren
Toronto police officer Constable James Forcillo was among several officers on the street. His sidearm was drawn and aimed at Sammy Yatim, who was standing alone in a streetcar with a knife. Forcillo fired a volley of shots and Yatim dropped. Forcillo fired aagin.
Yatim died.
Forcillo was eventually found guilty by a jury. But not of murder, or manslaughter. He was found guilty of attempted murder.
It seems rather confusing; Forcillo was the only officer who shot Yatim and he died because of these shots.
How can he be guilty of attempted murder, but not murder or manslaughter, when Yatim died? His shots killed Yatim.
The legal principle of “causation” explains this.
Causation means the act has to be what caused the death; not something else. If someone shoots another and kills them, then it must be the shots that caused the death.
It seems intuitive but this case shows how it is not always a foregone conclusion.
Forcillo stood on the street while Yatim was on the streetcar. There are two different phases to the incident that explains the decision. You can view the video; discretion is advised.
Forcillo said that the first shots were fired because he felt that Yatim was an imminent threat. The jury believed this and ruled that Forcillo had a defence to the firing. Even if a bullet from this volley had killed Yatim, Forcillo could not be convicted because of this defence.
But Forcillo fired another round after Yatim fell.
What is unclear is which volley of shots had caused Yatim’s death. The jury could not determine which was the cause of death.
Forcillo could not have been convicted of murder for the second round because there is no convincing evidence that these bullets killed him—causation is not proven.
But the jury found no defence or justification because Yatim was on the ground and did not pose a threat. It was chance that no concrete evidence could prove which set of shots killed Yatim, but the jury ruled that Forcillo shot him a second time with a clear intent to kill him, and there was no defence.
The jury ruled that Forcillo wanted to murder Yatim; took steps to do it; but the law of causation intervened and prevented a murder conviction.
