KINGSTON—Former Toronto police officer James Forcillo has been granted day parole after serving 21 months of his six-year sentence for the attempted murder of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.At a hearing Thursday morning, Forcillo, 36, told two Parole Board of Canada members he is haunted by his failure to follow his training as a police officer on the July 2013 night he shot and killed Yatim as the teen stood on an empty streetcar in downtown Toronto. “My fear of being stabbed overwhelmed my training,” he said of his decision to fire again at Yatim as he lay shot, partially paralyzed and dying on the floor of the streetcar.“There is absolutely zero justification to fire at someone lying flat on their back,” he said. “I feel like I robbed Mr. Yatim of his life. He was 18. He was just starting his life. Had I handled that situation better... had I followed my training he’d still be here,” he said. Forcillo said that he will not return to Toronto, and plans to move to a town where he has been accepted at a trade school. He said he hopes to eventually get an apartment with his fiancée, and they intend to marry early next year. As per the parole board decision, he will live at a halfway house with overnight privileges for the next six months. He is also required to have psychological counselling and must not make contact, directly or indirectly, with Yatim’s family.Yatim’s parents did not attend the hearing or submit any statements at the hearing, though victims are permitted to do so. On Wednesday, their lawyers said they had not been informed the hearing was taking place. Following the hearing, Ed Upenieks, who represents Yatim’s father Nabil, said the Yatim family would have attended and strongly opposed Forcillo’s release, had they known the hearing was happening. Upenieks called the former officer’s comments at the hearing “self-serving,” calling his words “totally diff ...
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