OPP completes probe into officers' conduct in Umar Zameer case, says up to Toronto police to release report
CBC
Ontario Provincial Police have concluded a review looking into the testimony and conduct of Toronto police officers involved in the case of a man accused of running over and killing an officer in an underground parking lot.
In 2021, Umar Zameer was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup in an underground parking garage beneath Toronto city hall. He was found not guilty by a jury in 2024.
The OPP investigation was launched that same year at the request of Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw after the judge in the case said it was possible three witness officers had colluded in their testimonies.
Nearly two years on, the OPP say their investigation is complete, but that it's up to Toronto police to release the findings.
In a news release Tuesday afternoon, the Toronto Police Service says it is reviewing the report and notifying affected individuals before the findings are released publicly.
"The Service is committed to transparency and will release the report publicly once these notifications have been completed," the release says.
Toronto's police union, the Toronto Police Association (TPA), said in a statement the organization has been notified the review has concluded. The TPA will continue to support their members and Northrup's family through the process, the release says.
The report’s conclusion comes weeks after several Toronto police officers were arrested on corruption-related charges in an investigation led by York Regional Police.
During Zameer’s trial, Justice Anne Molloy noted discrepancies between the witness accounts from three Toronto police officers and that of experts and what was reflected in evidence.
The judge also apologized to Zameer for what he’d been through in the years leading up to the verdict.
"Let's just be blunt — I don't see how they can get to second-degree murder on this evidence because of the expert report and video," she said at the time.
Northrup's former partner, then-Det. Const. Lisa Forbes, and constables Scharnil Pais and Antonio Correa, were at the scene of the incident in an unmarked police van. Northrup and his partner were in plain clothes, investigating a stabbing in the area.
During the trial, all three Toronto police officers testified Northrup was standing up in line with the car, with his hands raised, when Zameer ran him over.
But two crash reconstructionist experts agreed Northrup was already on the ground when he was run over. And, security footage played in court showed an object, believed to be Northrup’s body, on the ground in the car’s path, not standing.
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