Family doesn’t blame all Toronto police for shooting, friend says

TORONTO – A family friend of a young man who died after being shot by police on a Toronto streetcar says they don’t blame the entire force for the death.

Sammy Yatim, 18, died early Saturday morning after receiving multiple gunshot wounds in what the Special Investigations Unit calls an “interaction” with police.

Nine shots can be heard on videos that bystanders recorded and the SIU says a Taser was used as well.

Joseph Nazar says they’re not going to blame the whole Toronto police force for “an action of one police officer.”

He says he doesn’t know where the family goes from here, but for now they’re just trying to bury their son in peace.

Nazar says neither of Yatim’s parents were in town when he died, so his sister, who he believes is about 17 years old, had to identify her brother’s body.