A man accused of running over a Toronto police officer nearly three years ago offered a tearful apology to the man’s family in court Thursday, saying he didn’t mean to hurt the officer and wished he could bring him back.
Umar Zameer – who testified he thought his family was about to be robbed at the time – told a packed courtroom he cannot stop thinking about the day Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup died, and how things would have played out differently if he and his family had returned to their car just a few minutes earlier or later.
“I just wish it didn’t happen,” he said.
Zameer, a father of three, said he understands the father-son bond, and can’t imagine the grief felt by Northrup’s children.
“I’m so, so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your dad,” he said. “I just wish I could bring him back.”
Zameer has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Northrup’s death. The officer died after he was hit by a vehicle in an underground parking garage on July 2, 2021.
Court has previously heard that Northrup and his partner – both dressed in plain clothes – were investigating a stabbing when they went into the garage underneath Toronto City Hall. Zameer was not involved in the stabbing.
Crown prosecutors allege Zameer chose to make a series of manoeuvres with his car that caused Northrup’s death, but the defence says the officer’s death was a tragic accident.
Defence lawyers say neither Zameer nor his wife – who was eight months pregnant at the time – knew that the people who approached them in the largely empty parking garage were police officers. Their two-year-old son was also with them at the time.
On the stand Thursday, Zameer described getting in the family’s BMW and seeing an unknown man and a woman rush towards the car. He said he didn’t see them properly, but both of them were wearing shorts.
Zameer said the pair didn’t say anything, nor did he see anything in their hands. “They did not say ‘police,'” he noted. As they approached, the woman pointed at the hood, and Zameer said he assumed she was asking him to turn off the engine.
“I was so shocked,” said Zameer, adding he thought he and his family were about to be robbed.
Soon after, the woman knocked on the window and pointed down again, which Zameer said he thought could mean that she wanted him to open the door or roll down the window. Instead, he locked the doors, he said.
Immediately, the pair started banging on the car, causing Zameer’s son to start crying, he said. Zameer said he wanted to get out of there, so he drove forward into the empty parking spot in front, heading towards the laneway.
That’s when a dark grey van with tinted windows blocked their path, and Zameer hit the brakes to avoid a collision, he said.
“When I saw the van, I was shocked … I was so scared,” he said, adding he thought they were being attacked by a “gang” of unknown size.
The two people outside were still banging on the car, screaming at them to stop and get out, he said. Inside the car, Zameer said his wife was hyperventilating to the point where she couldn’t say his name properly and he thought she had gone into labour. Their son was still crying in distress, he said.
Zameer broke down in tears in court as he recalled turning around and putting his hand on his son’s knees, then looking back to reverse out of the spot.
When he reversed, the banging and the shouting stopped, he said. “I thought I left them there,” near the van, he said about the people outside the car.
Once in the laneway, Zameer started driving forward towards the exit, he said. He saw nothing in front of the car and didn’t hear anything, he said. “I only heard (my son) crying … there was no other sound,” he said.
He noticed going over what he thought was a speed bump, he said.
Zameer described feeling “horrified” when he later learned that what he thought was a speed bump had in fact been a man – and a police officer.
He recalled praying the man would be OK as he was taken to the police station, and recalled his shock at hearing the man had died.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2024.