A man accused of killing a Toronto police officer nearly three years ago acted reasonably under fear of an imminent threat to his heavily pregnant wife and two-year-old son, defence counsel said during closing arguments on Wednesday.
Umar Zameer, a 34-year-old accountant, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup, 55, on July 2, 2021. Northrup was run over by a car in a parking garage under Toronto City Hall while investigating a stabbing with his partner, Sgt. Lisa Forbes. Both officers were in plainclothes at the time.
Zameer has testified the pair did not identify themselves as police when they rushed towards his car, with his young family inside, in the largely empty parking lot around midnight.
Speaking to jurors in a full courtroom, defence lawyer Nader Hasan described Zameer as a “family man” who had no intention of killing Northrup and only drove to escape what he thought was real harm to his family.
“He believed genuinely, earnestly, these were people that he thought were criminals coming to attack him,” Hasan said.
Court has heard Zameer locked his car doors after Northrup and Forbes first approached his car. The pair then began banging on his car, loud enough that his child started crying in the backseat.
Umar Zameer has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup, who died after he was hit by a car in an underground parking garage in Toronto on July 2, 2021. CBC’s Greg Ross breaks down the evidence presented in court.
Zameer attempted to drive forwards out of the parking spot but an unmarked police van blocked him, Hasan said. He said the van’s appearance “changed everything,” as Zameer now thought his family was being ambushed by a gang. The van’s movement was also an unlawful detention by police, Hasan added.
After Zameer was boxed in, he reversed out of the parking spot at an accelerated speed. As he reversed, defence said he unknowingly delivered a “glancing contact” to Northrup, knocking the officer to the ground in the laneway of the car.
Northrup fell within the car’s blind zone, meaning he was not visible to Zameer when Zameer drove forward and ran him over, Hasan said, referencing expert testimony from a crash reconstructionist previously called by the defence.
“Every single one of [Zameer’s] movements were aimed at getting away, at escaping,” Hasan said.
Defence counsel described Northrup’s death as a tragedy that took place within a matter of seconds but said Zameer is not guilty of murder.
“I urge you not to compound tragedy with injustice,” Hasan said to the jury.
Cops lied on the stand: defence
Defence also argued that police officers called to testify by the Crown lied repeatedly under oath during the trial.
Hasan told the court that three officers who witnessed the incident, including Forbes, lied in the witness box when they testified Northrup was standing up in the middle of the laneway in front of Zameer’s car, with his hands outstretched, when he was run over.
“[Northrup] was never standing up in the middle of laneway one with his arms up, bracing for impact,” Hasan said. “That was a complete lie.”
Two crash reconstruction experts, one of them called by the Crown, told the court they concluded Northrup was knocked down by the car reversing and was already on the ground when he was run over by it moving forward.
The officers were “exactly the same and equally wrong” in their descriptions of the moment before Northrup was hit, he added.
Defence counsel referred to security camera footage of the parking garage showing an unidentified object, believed to be Northrup, appear on the ground in front of the car, as it drives forward in the laneway.
Officers Antonio Correa and Scharnil Pais, both testified that Northrup fell on the hood after he was hit, and then slid off — a specific detail that was not supported by physical evidence or expert analysis, defence said. Hasan said the two officers wrote their police notes about the incident together, and then lied in the witness box about doing so.
Though Correa testified he wrote his police notes alone, and Pais said he couldn’t remember where he was at the time he wrote his, another officer, Det.-Const. Ryan D’Souza, testified all the officers were all in the same room when they wrote their notes.
“[Correa and Pais] colluded together, and then lied about colluding together,” Hasan said. “They lied in this court and they lied unapologetically.”
Northrup’s widow was present during the defence’s closing statements and appeared to shake her head repeatedly as the defence said the three officers had lied on the stand.
The Crown is expected to present closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon, as the five week trial comes to an end.