Umar Zameer and his family had just seen the victim of a stabbing when they were approached by plain clothes officers. “They thought they were being ambushed by criminals,” his lawyer told the jury.
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‘This was not a murder’: Man accused of killing Toronto cop was out with pregnant wife and toddler, defence says
Umar Zameer and his family had just seen the victim of a stabbing when they were approached by plain clothes officers. “They thought they were being ambushed by criminals,” his lawyer told the jury.
After sightseeing in downtown Toronto on Canada Day, Umar Zameer thought he, his pregnant wife and two-year-old son were under attack by criminals when he accidentally ran over and killed a police officer in the parking garage beneath Nathan Phillips Square, his lawyer told a jury Wednesday as the high-profile trial got underway steps from where the tragic death of Const. Jeffrey Northrup occurred.
Prosecutor Michael Cantlon, however, told jurors Zameer is on trial for first-degree murder because he "chose to make a series of manoeuvres" with his vehicle that ended up crushing the veteran officer who was investigating a stabbing. The Criminal Code says that the murder of an on-duty police officer
is considered first-degree murder regardless of whether it was planned and deliberate.
Defence lawyer Nader Hasan's opening address was the first time the public has heard Zameer's account of what was going on in his mind when his BMW struck Northrup just after midnight on July 2, 2021. Northrup, 55, and his partner, Const. Lisa Forbes, were in plain clothes that evening and Zameer did not know they were police officers, Hasan said.
“This was not a murder, it was not a criminal act, it was a horrific, tragic accident,” the lawyer said. "Ask yourselves whether it makes sense that this young man, an accountant and family man, who has never been in trouble before, decided to all of a sudden kill a police officer while with his pregnant wife and toddler."
But Cantlon suggested Zameer should have realized Northrup and Forbes were police officers as they approached Zameer, his wife, Aaida Shakih, and their little boy in the underground.
The officer said multiple times "police" and "stop," and Forbes banged on the window and showed her badge, Cantlon said. Both she and Northrup had them dangling on chains around their necks that evening.
As the officers attempted to question Zameer,
he accelerated forward, side-swiping the officers, said Cantlon. At this time, an unmarked police van pulled up in front of the BMW, prompting Zameer to hit the gas and
strike Northrup a second time, forcing him to the ground. Zameer then quickly reversed the BMW, which rolled over the six-foot-three, 299-pound Northrup, "all before driving away from officer Northrup, who was left to die on the parking lot floor,” Cantlon said, adding he was "broken and bruised almost from head to toe."
The entire interaction took about 20 seconds, he said. Zameer was arrested before leaving the underground.
The crux of the case is whether "Zameer knew or was wilfully blind that officer Northrup was a police officer acting in the execution of his duties," said the prosecutor.
It's a pretty clear Murder One, if the Crown's account is true. Cops ID-ed themselves multiple times and the accused struck the cop with the car 3x, finally crushing him.
What else were the cops supposed to do?..... On duty cops have to be protected.