Umar Zameer has been found not guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup.
The verdict was delivered Sunday afternoon after almost four days of deliberations which began Thursday afternoon.
Justice Anne Molloy expressed “deepest apologies for what you went through” before informing Zameer he was free to go.
During the trial, the court heard that on July 2, 2021, Zameer, his pregnant wife and their two-year-old son were in downtown Toronto for Canada Day celebrations, visiting from their home in Vaughan. They returned to the parking garage at Toronto City Hall just after midnight.
Northrup and his partner, Sgt. Lisa Forbes, were in the garage investigating a stabbing. Both were in plain clothes at the time.
Zameer was not involved in the stabbing in any way, but earlier in the night he and his family had coincidentally walked past the victim.
At some point the officers approached Zameer’s vehicle, ultimately setting off a chain of events that led to Northrup being fatally struck.
Throughout the trial, Zameer’s defence lawyer maintained that his client didn’t know that Northrup and his partner were police officers and that Zameer and his wife thought they were being ambushed by criminals when the officers rushed towards them in the deserted underground parking lot.
The encounter happened roughly a month after a man killed four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont. Zameer’s wife, Shaikh, wears a headscarf, prompting them to fear the worst, the lawyer said.
The fact that Zameer ran over the officer was not in dispute, but the case centered on whether he intended to do it – or even knew that it happened – as well as whether he was aware that the people who approached his family were police officers.
Prosecutors argued Zameer chose to make a series of maneuvers with his car while plainclothes police officers were close by, hitting Northrup and crushing the officer’s body under the vehicle.
Three police officers, including Northrup’s partner, provided eyewitness testimony claiming that the veteran detective was standing with his hands up the moment before he was fatally struck.
However, two crash reconstruction experts – one called by the Crown and one by the defence – told court they concluded Northrup had been side swiped and knocked down by the car as it was reversing and was already on the ground when he was run over.
