Emotional testimony details final moments
Toronto officer describes ‘very abrupt, dangerous’ movements before undercover constable killed
Another Toronto police officer who was in the parking lot beneath Nathan Phillips Square the night Const. Jeffrey Northrup was run over and killed gave emotional testimony about the veteran officer’s final moments, detailing a sequence of events echoing that of two officers who have taken the stand at Umar Zameer’s murder trial.
Zameer has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His lawyer, Nader Hasan, has told the jury what happened wasn’t a crime but a “horrific, tragic accident” that occurred because the 34-year-old accountant thought he and his family were being ambushed by thugs, unaware that the plainclothes officers yelling and banging on their BMW were actually investigating a recent stabbing. His wife, who was eight months pregnant, and their two year old son were also in the car.
The defence position is that during the escape the BMW, while reversing after being “blocked” in, knocked the 55-year-old Northrup to the ground before fatally running him over. Const. Antonio Correa agreed Tuesday with earlier testimony from Sgt. Lisa Forbes and Const. Scharnil Pais that Northrup was standing in front of the BMW when he was struck early on July 2, 2021.
Correa testified Tuesday that after pulling an unmarked police van up in front of the BMW, he could see Northrup and Forbes standing outside the driver’s side of the car. He could see, but not hear, the other officers’ lips moving, their hands gesturing before the BMW accelerated in a “very abrupt, dangerous manner to the point where I ... gripped onto the steering wheel bracing for impact.” The BMW came to a sudden stop, “just inches away from hitting the side of our van,” he told jurors.
Pais, seated in the passenger side of the van, earlier testified he could hear Northrup and Forbes repeatedly yelling “Stop. Police.”
Correa said Zameer’s BMW made contact with Forbes and Northrup, pushing them in the same direction the car was travelling in. When the BMW was put into reverse, it almost knocked Forbes off her feet, he said. The vehicle sideswiped Northrup, causing him to jump out of the way “to avoid the front of the vehicle while it was turning and reversing at the same time.”
“Did you see officer Northrup knocked to the ground?” asked Crown attorney Michael Cantlon. “No.”
Correa said he watched as Northrup “began to walk away from the vehicle to safety.” At that point, he said, the BMW was put into drive “as if the pedal was put all the way down.” Northrup was about three or four parking spaces away when the vehicle started to drive at him.
“Jeff braces for impact, faces the vehicle, both his hands are up in the air,” Correa said fighting back tears. “The front of the vehicle hits his legs, his hands hit the hood, he goes up in the air, he bounces off the hood of the car and then he lands forward on the floor.”
As he lay there, the BMW “continued to accelerate, the front passenger tires go over his torso completely, and the grip of the tires makes him roll under the car.”
Forbes’ scream “still haunts me to this day,” the officer said.
Hasan began his cross-examination by suggesting some details of Correa’s version of what happened have changed since July 2, 2021; while the officer argued with Hasan’s suggestion that the van had blocked the BMW.
“It couldn’t drive through you,” Hasan asked incredulously.
“No, but I never blocked it in ... It was one full car length in between us.”
Hasan has questioned the officers about how much contact they’ve had since that evening, including how Pais and Correa returned to the underground together weeks after Northrup’s death. Pais said he did it to help stir his memories and record them in his notebook.
During his cross-examination of Pais, Hasan asked him about the timing of comments Zameer’s wife made to him. Pais said after he pulled the pregnant woman out of the car, Aaida Shaikh told him she didn’t know they were police. In addition, Pais said, she repeatedly asked him, “Is he going to be OK?”
Hasan suggested Shaikh’s questions about Northrup’s well-being came after Pais told Zameer, “You just ran over a cop.” The defence lawyer pointed to the officer’s notes from that evening, written in chronological format, that indicate Shaikh expressed concern after Pais “had made it known that someone had been run over.”
“I don’t know if it came before or after,” Pais responded.
Hasan persisted that Shaikh’s inquiry about Northrup came after Pais’ comment to her husband. Pais didn’t budge.
“I don’t exactly know when Ms. Shaikh made those utterances.”
Hasan also questioned Pais about being found guilty of professional misconduct involving the 2011 unlawful arrest of a group of Black teen boys whom he and a partner stopped while they were walking in their own housing complex. After a brief interaction, Pais and another officer detained and arrested the boys for assaulting police.
“But they didn’t assault anybody, correct?” Hasan asked.
“Subjectively my belief was different at the time,” as well as his partner’s, he replied.
The trial continues Wednesday.