Defence accuses Toronto cops of cooking up critical evidence
Officers claim Umar Zameer’s BMW hit Const. Jeffrey Northrup head-on
The lawyer representing the man who ran over and killed Toronto police Const. Jeffrey Northrup has accused the dead officer’s colleagues of cooking up evidence, including their critical claim that Umar Zameer’s BMW hit the veteran officer head-on in the underground parking lot below Nathan Phillips Square.
You made up with fellow Const. Sharnil Pais, “the nonsense that (Northrup) was standing up and received a direct hit while standing up, flying off the hood,” Nader Hasan said Wednesday, challenging Const. Antonio Correa during cross-examination after the officer, for the first time, watched low-resolution surveillance video taken in the garage around 12:19 a.m. on July 2, 2021.
“It was very choppy, it’s not a continuous video,” the officer said, acknowledging that Northrup isn’t visible in the footage, which shows Zameer’s BMW driving away from an incident that is mostly not captured.
Zameer, 34, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and will testify that he inadvertently drove over Northrup after mistaking him and his partner for criminals.
The defence position is that when Zameer’s BMW reversed, it clipped Northrup, knocking him to the ground, and that Zameer then drove on top of him oblivious that a person was in the car’s path. The officers were all dressed in plain clothes and Zameer and his pregnant wife did not know they were police, Hasan has told the jury. The couple’s two-year-old son was also in the vehicle that Canada Day night.
Three officers present that evening have given a different account of what happened before the 55year-old veteran officer lost his life.
The surveillance video from the distant parking lot camera captured some of what happened, including the movements of the unmarked police van being driven by Correa with Pais was in the passenger seat, the Zameer family’s BMW and Northrup’s partner, Lisa Forbes, walking.
On Wednesday, Correa sidestepped Hasan’s question about collusion, repeating his earlier response about the video’s poor quality.
“I’m not asking you about the video,” the defence lawyer said sharply. “I’m asking you to acknowledge that this a story you made up with officer Pais.”
“I acknowledge this is a very choppy video, it is not a continuous video.”
“You’re not going to answer my question,” Hasan said. “These are my observations.” Correa also refused to agree with Hasan’s suggestion that it was implausible that the hood of Zameer’s BMW would not have been damaged if indeed a 300-pound man — Northrup — had bounced off of it.
“You don’t see any damage, do you ... you don’t see dents,” Hasan asked, glancing at a photo of the BMW on the courtroom monitor.
“I don’t see damage, but I do see a disturbance in the dust,” Correa said.
The jury later heard evidence Wednesday that 18 fingerprints were found on the BMW's interior and exterior, including those identified as belonging to Forbes and Zameer. The only print on the entire vehicle that was identified as belonging to Northrup was a right finger impression located on the outer edge of the driver's side of the hood. Investigators were unable to identify all of the prints, due to insufficient detail.
Earlier Wednesday, Hasan reviewed the many times Correa and Pais have been together since July 2, 2021, including during the immediate aftermath at the hospital — both received minor injuries that evening — and at their home base of 52 Division.
Correa explained they weren’t discussing their evidence, but were consoling each other after witnessing the death of a colleague who was “a staple in our division.”
He also rejected Hasan’s accusation that he and Pais toured the underground parking lot a few weeks later in order to get their stories straight.
The purpose of that visit “was for my own observations,” Correa replied.
Hasan also suggested the two men wrote their notes together in the same room, despite the fact police note-taking is not supposed to be a “group project.”
Correa said Pais was not present when he wrote his notes on Aug. 4, almost a month after Northrup’s death.
However, Correa admitted that despite being told not to have any contact with Pais — who is a friend — the pair had exchanged text messages. Court has heard Pais was experiencing a “plumbing emergency” and contacted Correa because he needed the number of a plumber he had used before.
Also Wednesday, two civilian witnesses testified through Spanish interpreters they were in their vehicle in the midst of paying for parking when the police van rammed into the BMW and men appeared, guns drawn. They didn't realize the armed men were officers and fled.
The trial resumes Tuesday.
(You made up) the nonsense that (Northrup) was standing up and received a direct hit while standing up, flying off the hood.
NADER HASAN DEFENCE LAWYER