Defence says there’s more to case in constable’s death
‘The truth will emerge,’ lawyer says as murder trial begins for 2021 incident in city hall parking garage
The lawyer representing the man charged with the first-degree murder of a Toronto police officer is appealing to the public to keep an open mind as his client’s trial begins.
“I promise in due time, the truth will emerge,” defence lawyer Nader Hasan said outside of court on Monday evening after the first day of Umar Zameer’s downtown Toronto trial was tied up in jury selection.
Zameer was arrested for running over Const. Jeffrey Northrup in the underground parking lot at city hall three years ago. Police have alleged Northrup was intentionally struck by a vehicle driven by Zameer.
Northrup, 55, was working in plain clothes with other officers investigating a stabbing that evening — because he was killed in the line of duty, Zameer was charged with first-degree murder.
Hasan also spoke to the media after Zameer was arrested and released on bail in September 2021.
Hasan said he felt it necessary to make a similar appeal now because there is a lot more to the case “than the inaccurate, sensational snippets that emerged from the media,” he told reporters outside the courthouse.
Hasan said these would be the last comments he would make outside court until the trial ends, “out of respect and deference for the court process.”
The decision to bail Zameer led to an outcry from Premier Doug Ford, former Toronto mayor John Tory and others.
That prompted Hasan to seek the lifting of the standard publication ban placed on the judge’s bail decision.
At the subsequent hearing, Superior Court Justice Jill Copeland declined the request to lift the ban but noted that the evidence “paints a very different picture” than the comments made by police and politicians.
At the time, the judge scolded commentators for denigrating “the presumption of innocence and the fair operation of the criminal justice system.”
Hasan spent the day in court sitting alongside his 34-year-old client as Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy questioned potential jurors about biases they may have toward police or people of colour. Zameer is a brown-skinned, South Asian accountant and Northrup was a white officer.
Members of Northrup’s family sat quietly watching the proceedings.
At an unrelated news conference on Monday, Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw acknowledged the start of the long-awaited trial.
“I do want the Northrup family to know that the thoughts of the members of the Toronto Police Service remain with them now and always,” he said.
Jury selection is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
The last time someone stood trial for killing a Toronto police officer was Richard Kachkar who was homeless and barefoot and driving a stolen snow plow when he killed Sgt. Ryan Russell on Jan. 12, 2011.
Kachkar was originally charged with first-degree murder but was found not criminally responsible due to mental illness.