What jurors heard in first two weeks of murder trial
Man accused of intentionally running over undercover officer in 2021
Three summers ago, Umar Zameer, his pregnant wife and two-year-old son left their home in Woodbridge and drove to downtown Toronto for Canada Day celebrations — muted since it was still in the middle of the pandemic.
It started as a pleasant evening. As they strolled around street level, the toddler clutching a Canada flag pinwheel, they took in street performances at Yonge-Dundas Square before walking back to city hall, where they saw a disturbing site: a shirtless man bleeding from a stab wound to his abdomen.
The Toronto police officers arriving to investigate the stabbing, many dressed in plain clothes, would soon cross paths with the Zameer family, eventually resulting in the tragic death of a veteran Toronto police Const. Jeffrey Northup. He died after being run over by a BMW sedan driven by Zameer.
The circumstances are the centre of a high-profile murder trial set to resume Tuesday, with prosecutors already in the home stretch. Still to come is testimony from Aaida Shaikh, Zameer’s wife, who was sitting in the passenger seat beside her husband. She is the only other nonpolice witness who saw what happened. Prosecutors are also calling a Toronto police collision reconstructionist.
Zameer, who is a 34-year-old accountant, has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of the 55year-old officer who the jury has heard was a “staple” of Toronto’s nearby 52 Division.
Here’s what the jury has learned in the first two weeks of trial, and what they’ve been told to expect.
Was Northrup’s death an intentional act?
For the past two weeks, the Superior Court jury has heard varying versions about what happened after the Zameer family, shortly after midnight on July 2, 2021, returned to their car in the mostly vacant underground parking garage, where plainclothes police officers were investigating a stabbing.
Zameer’s lawyer has told the jury his client, feeling threatened and believing his family was being targeted by criminals, panicked and inadvertently ran over and killed Northrup while attempting to flee.
“This was not a murder … this was not a criminal act,” Hasan said during his opening address.
The prosecution alleges that Zameer deliberately struck an officer who was acting in the line of duty.
This case “is all about the choices” Zameer made that resulted in the death of an officer, Crown attorney Michael Cantlon told the jury.
Did Zameer know Northrup was a cop?
That night, Northrup was dressed in shorts, a T-shirt and a buttoneddown shirt with a police badge in a chain around his neck; there’s been conflicting evidence as to whether he showed his badge to Zameer.
Cantlon told jurors that Northrup and his partner, Lisa Forbes, identified themselves and that she held out her badge when she asked to speak to him.
What was and wasn’t caught on video
Surveillance video tracked the Zameer family’s movements that night. It shows them walking by a stranger who’d been stabbed; the same man later told police he had been attacked by a suspect he described as brown, with big hair and a long beard.
That description — and whether or not it came close to matching Zameer — has been a focus at trial, with the defence arguing hundreds of thousands of men in the GTA match that description.
Footage taken inside the garage did not capture the initial interactions between the officers and Zameer. Nor did it show all the movements of his vehicle as it hit Northrup, with the view blocked by a wall, pillar and other obstructions.
The testimony — and credibility — of Northrup’s colleagues
The Crown’s witnesses have included three other officers in the parking garage that night who have each provided emotional testimony.
Forbes testified she and Northrup approached the family calmly on foot. She said they identified themselves as officers and asked to speak with the driver (Zameer), but that instead of co-operating he attempted to flee.
Crucially, she testified that Zameer ran Northrup down while he was standing in front of the BMW, waving at him to stop.
Two other officers who were nearby in an unmarked police van more or less corroborated her account, with both testifying Zameer hit Northrup head-on.
“Jeff braces for impact, faces the vehicle, both his hands are up in the air,” Const. Antonio Correa told the jury, 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.”
The defence has challenged that narrative, alleging the officers colluded in their testimony and questioning the plausibility of the claim Northrup was in front of the BMW when he was hit.
Cross-examining Correa, Hasan argued physical evidence and choppy, low-quality surveillance video contradict the idea Northrup was hit head-on.
“You don’t see any damage, do you,” Hasan said, referring to a photograph of the front of Zameer’s BMW.
As the trial has progressed, Hasan has also scrutinized how the officers did their jobs that evening, noting that one of them punched Zameer in the face after he was handcuffed.
Why first-degree murder?
Central to the case is Zameer’s state of mind and whether he knew Northrup and Forbes were on-duty officers.
Ultimately, the jury must determine whether Zameer’s actions constitute murder or if the death of the veteran officer was a tragic accident driven by fear and misunderstanding.
The Criminal Code says that any murder of an on-duty police officer is considered first-degree murder, regardless of whether it was planned and deliberate.
What’s still to come
The Crown has not finished presenting its case, and the defence is yet to begin calling its own witnesses.
The jury has heard that the Crown will call Shaikh, Zameer’s wife, and Zameer himself will testify when the defence begins calling evidence.
Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy initially said the trial would last about five weeks; on Thursday she advised the jury it would likely be shorter than expected.