“We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.”
That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
A jury found the 34-year-old accountant not guilty on Sunday following a weeks-long trial that looked at events of July 2, 2021, when Toronto Police Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup was run over and killed by Zameer in the underground parking garage of Nathan Phillips Square shortly after midnight.
“It’s just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is just not here [anymore]. So I don’t know how I will move on. I’m trying my best and I will keep trying my best,” he said.
Zameer had pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree murder laid in connection with the incident.
He was in his car with his pregnant wife and young child following Canada Day celebrations at the downtown square when Northrup and his partner, both in plainclothes at the time, approached his vehicle in the parking garage as they investigated a stabbing in the area. Zameer wasn’t involved in the stabbing and said he didn’t know the pair were police officers.
Northrup’s partner, Det. Const. Lisa Forbes, testified that she had repeatedly identified herself as a police officer and banged on the car and yelled as Zameer started driving. But Zameer told the court that he thought his family was being attacked.
This is a develping story. More to come.