On video replay, Sammy Yatim drops to the floor of that Dundas streetcar over and over again: Stop, rewind. Stop, rewind.

You’ve likely seen it and have reacted, whether with rage or consternation or an instinctive urge to exonerate the police officer who fired his gun nine times — eight bullets striking the teenager.

Now imagine you are the chief of police, watching that tape, eyes widening.

“We’re in the business of saving lives,” Chief Bill Blair says quietly. “That’s what we do. We try to save lives, all of us, every police officer. We go into this job to keep people safe, that’s the mission. I want my people to be safe but our job is to keep the people of Toronto safe.”

The people of Toronto were not at risk in that moment, late on the night of July 27, as Sammy — alone on the streetcar — wielded a small knife. A clutch of cops only a few feet away, on the road, did not appear to be at imminent risk either. Yet the crack of gunfire erupted in a lethal rat-a-tat.

“Witnessing that, obviously it was apparent to me as a police officer but also as a citizen that there were questions that needed to be answered,” Blair tells the Star in a one-on-one interview at his office, nobody else present, the same office where the chief met with Sammy’s grieving family shortly after the shooting.

“All of us are sad at the loss of life. Certainly I am as well. I’m a father. Someone has lost their son, their brother. Yes, it was a tragic thing to have happened. And my responsibility is to get the answers. That’s what I told the family and what I said publicly — I understand the need to get to the answers and we will do that.”

Unusually but not without precedent, Blair suspended the subject officer — Const. James Forcillo — even before the Special Investigations Unit announced that he would be charged with second-degree murder, only the second time an on-duty officer in Toronto has faced such a serious charge in more than two decades.

“The decision was mine,” says Blair, explaining that he designated an “emissary” to prepare and serve the documents of suspension, which were presented to Forcillo by his commanding officer. Forcillo is not working in any capacity but is suspended with pay, which is the legal construct that Blair must follow.

“It was the right thing to do. People shouldn’t get confused, though. Suspension is not punishment. Suspension is an administrative function. I suspended that officer to allow the investigation to proceed.

“This is a terribly serious matter. It’s my call whether I can return a person to duty. I’ve had lots of people who’ve been investigated and charged who may be suspended and we were able to return them to limited and restricted duties. That hasn’t happened here. There are cases where I believe it’s in the public interest to continue the suspension and that’s what we did here.”

Blair is not permitted to even speak with Forcillo now. He does have the authority, however, to investigate the conduct of the 22 individuals designated witness officers by the SIU. This he is doing, tasked to the Professional Standards unit. Every aspect of how those cops acquitted themselves — including the Tasering of Sammy after he’d been shot — is being scrutinized, with the possibility of separate charges being laid under the Police Act.

Section 11, Regulation 263 of that Act directs Blair to investigate the officers’ behaviour. “The act requires that I look at policies and/or service of the Toronto Police Service. That’s happening. We do that in every SIU case and I have to send that review to the police board.

“In this case, I separated the police and the service from the conduct. I’ve asked for an independent, objective review by a judge to look at the policies.” That’s the review announced Aug. 14, Blair calling upon retired judge Dennis O’Connor to assist in the internal review of both the specific incident and broader use-of-force issues in dealing with emotionally or mentally disturbed people.

“I want the public to have confidence,” in that process, said Blair. “There’s a great opportunity for us to advance, to learn from the experience of others and I think we’ll get some really good recommendations to help improve service.

“But I had this additional responsibility to look at the conduct of all the officers, which will include the officer who deployed the Taser, to ensure that it was done appropriately, if it was properly justified or not. If there’s a determination of misconduct, it’s my responsibility to deal with that misconduct.”

The sergeant who boarded that streetcar and Tasered Sammy has not been publicly identified. By law, in Ontario, only supervisors and tactical caps — the Emergency Task Force — are authorized to deploy “conducted energy weapons.” Blair knows who it is. He has copies of the notebooks belonging to all the witness officers involved. He has copies of the statements those officers provided to the SIU.

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“There may be some that we will go back and ask additional questions of conduct that the SIU might not have asked.”

The SIU investigation has priority. “They’ll do their job and I’ll do mine. If there are conduct issues, it’s my responsibility to deal with those.”

Professional Standards can lay Police Act charges. Maximum penalty under the Act is dismissal.

Blair is well aware that public outrage over Sammy’s shooting intensified when it became obvious that the teen had also been Tasered after being riddled with bullets. Police use Tasers as a “less lethal force option,” though their use has drawn criticism, particularly after RCMP officers jolted Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski — who died — five times in the Vancouver airport in 2007.

“You should always try to resolve these things using the least amount of force possible,” observes Blair.

The SIU did not designate the supervisor in the Sammy incident as a subject officer. They are not even looking at why he Tasered the teen after the fact because it was determined that action didn’t cause Sammy’s death. But Blair is looking — hard.

On a night when cops kicked over shell casings, failed to properly secure the scene while the confrontation with Sammy was still fluid — civilians approaching closely, traffic moving both ways on Dundas — and Forcillo went from zero to ballistic in a matter of minutes, sudden drastic escalation rather than measured de-escalation of a tense standoff, there is clearly ample disturbing conduct for Blair to investigate.

“It’s a very difficult thing, difficult for the family and difficult for the city,” Blair says.

Blair came back early from a business trip when he learned the SIU would be charging “my guy.” The SIU afforded Forcillo exceptional accommodations to turn himself in without being subjected to the routine indignities experienced by ordinary civilians.

The courts will deal with Forcillo — for those who have faith in courts when a cop stands accused.

The chief will deal with the rest — for those who have faith in Blair.

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