The friends of a teen shot dead on a downtown streetcar early Saturday gathered to mourn together Sunday – and to ask why their friend died.

Friends identified the boy to CTV News as 18-year-old Sammy Yatim, an immigrant from Syria who had been in the country about five years and was planning on attending college next year.

“He was such a loveable boy. Why did they have to do what they done to him?” said Nonie Wall, a friend of Yatim’s.

Sobbing, she said she didn’t understand why the teen had to die.

Yatim was fatally shot on a Dundas streetcar near Bathurst Street just after midnight Saturday during an interaction with police.

Police surrounded the streetcar with their guns drawn after reports of a man inside with a knife. Nine audible shots can then be heard on video of the incident posted to YouTube.

The victim was rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds, but was pronounced dead a short time later.

Speaking Sunday, the boy’s friends questioned whether lethal force would have been required to deal with him.

“One guy on an empty street car, 18 years old – it’s gonna take that much force? Really?” said friend Nathaniel Schifitto.

Schifitto said Yatim had gotten in touch with him the night he was shot and he speculated Yatim might have gotten lost on his way home.

“He called me around nine or ten o’clock, something like that, telling me his phone had died and where to reach him, but that was it,” Schifitto said.

Yatim’s friends said he did collect knives, but was a respectful and polite boy who was sometimes shy because of his uncertain English.

They said both his parents were out of town when he was killed, leaving it to his teenaged sister to identify his body.

A note posted with white roses Sunday near the scene of the incident said Yatim deserves some kind of justice.

The province’s Special investigations Unit is now looking into the incident and has assigned six investigators and two forensic investigators to determine what happened.

The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been a death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

- With a report by CTV’s Scott Lightfoot

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