(Update)
It’s been less than two weeks since the shooting death of 18-year old Sammy Yatim and Thursday Ontario’s Ombudsman announced his intention to investigate the government’s guidelines to police on how to de-escalate conflict situations.
Yatim was shot and killed by police while holding a knife on an empty TTC street car on July 27th.
His death sparked outrage in the community with many saying the shooting was unnecessary and the situation could have been diffused without deadly force.
Andre Marin says recommendations from past shootings haven’t been effectively implemented creating a cycle of unnecessary killings.
“These police shootings bear remarkable similarities to one another. So after twenty years are we content to just move along like we’ve been doing or are we going to improve police response to this. It seems to be like groundhog day.”
Marin says his probe into the government’s guidelines will take between 6 to 12 months. The shooting was captured by cell phones and security cameras which thousands of people have now watched.
Yatim’s family released a statement responding to marin’s annoucement saying quote:
“We are pleased with the Ombudsman’s decision to further investigate police training and protocol during situations similar to the one that lead to our son’s death.”
This inquiry will hopefully, finally, lead to the implementation, not just recommendation, of safe conflict resolution procedures.”
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