Toronto cop's death was tragic but not murder, defence says in trial

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.

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. 

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.