Tearful Umar Zameer apologizes for death of Toronto cop Jeff Northrup

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In dramatic testimony, a tearful Umar Zameer wept as he apologized for the death of Toronto Police Det. Const. Jeff Northrup.

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But the father of three insisted he didn’t know he’d hit anyone – let alone intentionally run down the plainclothes officer just after midnight on July 2, 2021 in the underground garage beneath Nathan Phillips Square.

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Zameer, 34, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

“Whenever I think about the family my heart bleeds. I know the father and son bond,” Zameer wept as he testified in his own defence Thursday morning. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t meant to hurt your dad. I just wish I could bring him back. I just wish all of this didn’t happen.”

Northrup, 55, was working in plainclothes as part of the major crime unit that was investigating a stabbing when he was killed. Three of his colleagues have testified Zameer hit the officer head-on as he fled from them in his BMW. Two accident reconstructionists have told the jury Northrup was knocked down as the car reversed and then run over.

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Zameer said wished he, his pregnant wife and toddler had never decided to leave their Woodbridge home and go downtown to celebrate Canada Day that night and they hadn’t parked in the underground. He told the jury he didn’t know Northrup and his partner, Sgt. Lisa Forbes, were police officers when they “were rushing” at his BMW and started banging on his car windows, demanding that he stop and get out.

“I was so shocked,” he recalled. “I thought they just came to rob us.”

When an unmarked van then blocked his way out of the parking spot, Zameer said he feared they were under attack by a gang. With his pregnant wife hyperventilating beside him and his two-year-old son crying, “Baba, Baba,” he said he was “so scared” and wanted to get away.

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Zameer insisted none of them identified themselves as police and contrary to Forbes’ testimony, she wasn’t holding a police badge in her hands.

He reversed quickly, the banging stopped and while he accelerated forward toward the exit, he thought he’d gone over a speed bump, he said. He asked his wife to call the police to help them.

Seconds later, they were hit from behind, Zameer was arrested at gunpoint and he was told he’d just hit someone. One of the two men pointed to blood on his BMW and told him, “Look at that, that’s the brains of my partner.”

“My legs were shaking. I couldn’t feel the ground under my legs. I couldn’t believe what they were telling me; I couldn’t believe someone actually died under my car,” Zameer said, fighting back tears.

“I was so horrified to this day,” he said. “I know it’s a hard truth I have to live with; I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

The Crown has begun its cross-examination.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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