The family of an 18-year-old man that was fatally shot by police on board a streetcar last year has filed an $8 million lawsuit alleging that the force used upon Sammy Yatim was “excessive,” “unreasonable” and “not justifiable by law.”

The lawsuit was filed in October by Yatim’s mother and sister and names Police Chief Bill Blair, Const. James Forcillo, two unnamed officers and the Toronto Police Services Board as defendants.

Yatim was wielding a knife inside an empty streetcar on Dundas Street near Bellwoods Avenue last July when he was allegedly shot by Forcillo, who was standing with other officers near the streetcars open door.

The Special Investigations Unit later charged Forcillo with second-degree murder in connection with the incident.

The charges came after weeks of public protests over police conduct in the case.

“The plaintiffs, Sahar Bahadi and Sara Ann Yatim, plead that, as a result of the actions of the defendants, they suffered nervous shock. The defendant officers knew or ought to have known that these plaintiffs would suffer nervous shock upon learning of the circumstances of Sammy’s death,” the statement of claim reads. “Without restricting the generality of the foregoing, these plaintiffs continue to suffer anxiety, depression and physical and psychological conditions arising from the unlawful conduct of the defendant police officers.”

In the statement of claim, Bahadi and Yatim allege that the defendants “acted with reckless disregard for the life of Sammy’ in employing “unnecessary and unreasonable force” and further erred by failing to initiate emergency medical care in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

The statement of claim also says that Blair and the TPS board either knew or ought to have known that the attendant officers on the night in question were “incompetent,” “insufficiently trained” and had been subject to “numerous public and internal complaints for their “excessive use of force.”

“The defendants Chief Blair and the Police Services Board owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs to ensure that the defendant police officers were properly for, and supervise in respect of, their duties as police officers,” the statement of claim says. “Chief Blair and the Police Services Board breached this duty of care, and were negligent in supervising the defendant police officers.”

According to a report in the Toronto Star, no statement of defences have yet been filed to the lawsuit.

News of the lawsuit comes one day before the release of an independent review of police use of force guidelines by Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci. The review was ordered by Blair in the wake of Yatim's death last August.

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