When Sgt. Dan Pravica arrived at 14 Division for his evening shift on July 26, 2013, he figured it was going to be a busy night.

Some 10,000 moshers were expected to attend a rave in the area. There was a beer fest on tap at the CNE and a Kiss concert. Just over the division line, Justin Bieber was performing at the Air Canada Centre and the Blue Jays were playing at Rogers, with a spill-over effect on traffic and pedestrians galore expected on the streets afterwards. And, because of shift overlap, he'd be the sole sergeant on duty.

The only senior officer to summon if, for example, the need arose for a Taser.

Pravica pushed paper for several hours and didn't hit the streets in his cruiser until 9:30 p.m.

More than two more hours would pass before a "hot shot'' call came through on the radio: Person with a knife on board a streetcar.

The sergeant would not know until much later that a teenager, Sammy Yatim, had been riding the eastbound car when he suddenly began brandishing a knife in one hand and his exposed penis in the other.

"I heard something to the effect of, we need a Taser here or a sergeant with a Taser, something like that," the 20-year Toronto police veteran told court on Wednesday.

Pravica turned on his lights and siren and gunned it towards Bellwoods Ave. and Dundas St.

It was just about midnight.

Pulled up three cars behind the stopped streetcar. Had already reached across his body to release the Taser on his waist.

By 12:01:11, Pravica can be seen — on video footage — through the side window of the streetcar, Taser in hand. He recalled "four or five'' cops standing in a semi-circle around the front door, some with Glocks drawn.

Pravica testified he never heard any shots fired — nine bullets discharged in two distinct volleys, Yatim struck by eight of them, dropping to the floor of the streetcar, already dying (the fatal shot had damaged his heart, another had shattered his spine, paralyzing the 18-year-old from the waist down), lying on an angle, one foot just barely protruding over the top step of the stairwell.

Somebody was yelling out commands. This was Const. James Forcillo, ordering Yatim to: Drop the knife! Forcillo had already shot at Yatim nine times.

Pravica moved in front of Forcillo and the other officers. In those few seconds that elapsed, Pravica did not even consider using pepper spray on the suspect.

"I would never use pepper spray with a person with a knife,'' he told court under direct examination by defence lawyer Peter Brauti. "If you come out with that knife, you're going to stab somebody.''

Which is essentially what Forcillo said on the stand when he testified in his own defence two weeks ago. The constable has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

"I would automatically go to my firearm if it wasn't for the Taser," Pravica added.

Just over his shoulder, Pravica heard somebody say: "I've shot him.''

"My head snaps back," said Pravica. "It caught me completely off guard. I wouldn't have known somebody had been shot.''

To repeat, Pravica did not see and did not hear those shots. What he did see was somebody lying on the floor of the streetcar.

"He had a knife visibly in his right hand. He was pointing it right at me. He was rising … in a rocking motion. The knife never left his hand. He was making guttural sounds. I could see there was movement, he was looking at me and he was making some sort of sound.''

In those chaotic moments, Pravica does notice a bullet wound, actually a "bullet embedded half in and half out of the body."

"My perception was that he was trying to get up. Literally, within a three-second span, I've been told he's been shot. But I don't see any blood spurting. There's no pool of blood near the body.

"I've no idea if he's playing possum. He could potentially be getting ready to slash my throat or come across the abdomen. I'm pointing the Taser at him and he's not going to drop the knife for me.''

But Yatim was incapable of getting up. On various videos the jury has watched, the prone teen — between volleys — reaches over with one arm, across his body, and may be trying to push the knife he's dropped into his other hand. This, however, is not at all conclusive in the footage — that Yatim ever grabbed the knife again.

So Pravica zapped him, from no more than four feet away, both prongs attached to their wires hitting the mark.

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The videos show no "rocking'' motion before the Taser is applied; only apparent foot convulsions by the dying Yatim.

Even Forcillo, when he testified, has acknowledged that, after seeing the video, he realized Yatim never pushed himself back up to a 45-degree angle, as he'd believed.

Yet Pravica, under often heated cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Ian Bulmer, sticks to what he thinks he saw.

"He was making every effort to get up with a knife.''

Bulmer: "He could have been getting up?"

Pravica: "He could have been, and I would have had to have borne the brunt of whatever happened.

"He saw the Taser. He was alive. He was looking at me, through me or past me.''

Bulmer: "You didn't know he was actually in the process of dying.''

Pravica: "No, how would I know that? He was looking at me. The knife was pointed straight up. He was holding it in both hands. He appeared to me to be straining to get up.''

The videos do not show Yatim holding the knife in both hands, pointing straight out towards Pravica or struggling to rise.

Derisively, Bulmer asks: "So you'd just like to add that to your evidence?''

Pravica: "When you point your gun at people, they generally put their hands up. For whatever reason, he didn't put the knife down.

Bulmer: "Maybe because he's dying.''

Pravica then boards the streetcar and kicks the knife away.

Although the sergeant would later that night be designated a witness officer — and not get around to writing up his notes until some four hours after the incident — he is the subject of, to his knowledge, two civilian complaints brought by Yatim's family over the Tasering.

"In my opinion, I believe it's a prejudicial complaint. I deem it to be frivolous and vexatious in nature.''

The cross-examination continues Thursday.