‘Police, we’d like to talk to you’
Undercover officer testifies she identified herself to driver before partner was fatally run over
Toronto police Sgt. Lisa Forbes provided emotional and graphic testimony Thursday recounting her partner’s final moments before he was fatally struck by a vehicle in city hall’s underground parking lot, emphasizing that she repeatedly identified herself as law enforcement, despite wearing plain clothes.
Umar Zameer, the driver who ran over Const. Jeffrey Northrup, is on trial for first-degree murder, but maintains no crime occurred because he perceived his family to be under threat from criminals and inadvertently ran over the veteran officer while trying to protect himself, his pregnant wife and their two-year-old son. The jury has heard the family immigrated to Canada from Malaysia in 2019.
Just after midnight on July 2, 2021, Forbes, then a constable, and Northrup were on the second level of the nearly deserted parking garage looking for the location of an earlier stabbing incident when they heard a child’s voice and saw a man standing outside the driver’s side door of a black, newer model SUV.
Forbes said she approached the vehicle, saw a woman and a toddler inside, and made eye contact with the man.
“Hello, police, can we talk to you,” she said standing up in the witness box to demonstrate the chain around her neck that holds her police badge, which she held up for the jury to see.
The man looked “surprised” and jumped in his vehicle, Forbes testified, sitting back down. She thought that was “unusual” and wondered if there might be a language barrier, she pressed her badge against the driver’s side window, and leaned in “so he can see my face and badge and said, ‘Police, we’d like to talk to you.’ ”
Forbes said she tried to “speak slower and louder” and instructed him to roll down his window. There was still no response when the car suddenly lurched forward, catching her off guard “because I still had eye contact,” she said.
An unmarked police van then pulled up, while Forbes said she started to bang on the car’s window. “When the car lurches forward we say ‘stop,’ (and) it hits the brakes to avoid colliding with the van,” she said. The vehicle immediately went into reverse and she and Northrup continued to try “to get him to stop.”
She said she and Northrup were now at the front of the vehicle, yelling at the driver to stop. He hit the brakes, and Forbes said she put her hands and palms facing the car “almost to brace for impact.” She pushed herself away and ended up on the passenger side; while Northrup was on the driver’s side. Both were still standing, she said.
The driver then backed up, turning his steering wheel and, in doing so, “catches Jeff around the legs.” He stumbled and put his palms up — “At this point, it’s more of a plea, ‘stop,’ ” she said. The car then hit Northrup, sending him flying backwards. He ended up lying perpendicular to the car, she said. The car accelerated again, Forbes said, pausing to take a deep breath.
“The front wheels go over Jeff,” she said, placing her hand on her mouth, “and he’s a large man and this is a lower SUV. It’s like the car gets stuck on him so the wheels go over, it’s like the car is struggling to get over him.” Forbes heard a “horrendous thumping” as he was rolling underneath the car.
“I’m screaming, it’s not a word it’s a sound,” Forbes said. The vehicle then left, and she yelled at the officers in the van to “go get him.” Zameer was arrested before leaving the lot.
Forbes fought to contain her composure as she described how her colleague of 13 years lay dying as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. She performed CPR and tried to get help on her police radio, screaming, “Officer down,” she testified.
Crown attorney Karen Simone asked Forbes if she recalled Northrup saying anything during the interaction. At first, Forbes said she could only recall hearing his voice in the underground minutes during a “personal conversation,” where she had said to him “How lucky are we? It’s summer, it’s Canada Day, we’re getting overtime to be here and we’re getting paid to hang out.’ ” Nor could she recall if Northrup’s police badge was visible in the underground.
But after a break, Simone provided Forbes with a transcript of her testimony from an earlier court proceeding where she said both she and Northrup had at various times said “Stop, police.” A key issue for the jury to decide in this trial is Zameer’s state of mind and whether or not he believed Northrup and Forbes were police officers.
Zameer’s defence lawyer, Nader Hasan, began his cross-examination Thursday afternoon challenging Forbes’ credibility by asking her about being found guilty, in 2012, of discreditable conduct over the mishandling of funds raised for the family of a colleague who, like Northrup, was killed in the line of duty.
Hasan accused Forbes of minimizing her role in the fundraising scheme, and of lying at an earlier court proceeding when she claimed only to be a witness officer, not the subject officer in the internal investigation.
“I was incorrect, I was not lying,” Forbes said. “This was a well-intended charity, it was mismanaged and I owned that, to the degree I was reprimanded for it.”
Hasan is set to resume his questioning on Friday.