A man accused of running over a Toronto police officer has pleaded guilty in court

TORONTO – A man accused of running over a Toronto police officer nearly three years ago tearfully apologized in court Thursday to the man's family, saying he didn't mean to hurt the officer and wanted him back.

Omar Zamir – who at the time said he thought his family was about to be robbed – told the packed courtroom that he couldn't stop thinking about Det Day. Const. Jeffrey Northrup is dead, and if he and his family had returned to their car a few minutes earlier or later, things would have been different.

“I wish it hadn't happened,” he said.

Zamir, a father of three, said he can't imagine the pain Northrup's children are going through.

“I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your father,” she said. “I wish I could take it back.”

Zamir has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Northrup's death. The officer died on July 2, 2021 after being hit by a car in an underground parking garage.

The court heard earlier that Northrup and his partner – both dressed in plain clothes – were investigating the stabbing when they entered a garage below Toronto City Hall. Zamir was not involved in the stabbing.

Crown prosecutors say Zamir chose to make a series of maneuvers with his car that led to Northrup's death, but the defense says the officer's death was a tragic accident.

Defense attorneys said neither Zamir nor his wife — who was eight months pregnant at the time — were unaware that the men who approached them in the mostly empty garage were police officers. At that time, their two-year-old son was with them.

On the stand Thursday, Zamir described seeing the family get into the BMW and see an unidentified man and woman run toward the car. He said that he did not see them properly, but they were both wearing shorts.

Zamir said the couple did not say anything and did not see anything in their hands. “They didn't say 'police,'” he said. As they approached, the woman pointed to the hood, and Zamir said he thought she was asking him to turn off the engine.

Zamir thought he and his family were about to be robbed, he said.

Soon the woman knocked on the window and looked down again, which Zamir said could mean she wanted him to open the door or roll up the window. Instead, he locked the doors, he said.

Immediately, the pair hit the car and Zamir's son started crying, he said. Zamir said he wanted out of there, so he walked to the empty parking lot in front and headed for the lane.

That's when a dark gray van with tinted windows blocked their path and Zamir hit the brakes to avoid a collision, he said.

“I was shocked when I saw the van… I was very scared,” he said, thinking they were being attacked by a “gang” of unknown size.

Two people outside were still hitting the car and yelling at them to stop and get out, he said. Inside the car, Zamir said his wife was hyperventilating to the point where she couldn't pronounce his name correctly and thought she was in labor. Their son was still crying in pain, he said.

Zamir teared up as he remembered turning around in court and placing his hand on his son's lap.

When he turned back, the banging and screaming stopped, he said. “I thought I left them there,” he said of the people outside the van, near the van.

After leaving the road, Zamir started walking forward towards the exit, accelerating to get away, he said. He didn't see or hear anything in front of the car, he said. “All I heard was (my son) crying… there was no other sound,” she said.

He noticed he was going through what he thought was a speed bump, he said.

As he was walking towards the exit, he told his wife to call the police, he said. “They stopped behind another car at the exit gate and hit it from behind,” he said.

At his window, Zamir saw a man pointing a gun at him and yelling at him to get out, he said. Zamir said he thought the man would shoot him if he didn't comply, so he got out of the car and was terrified and told him to urinate in his pants.

He fell to the ground and one of the men tied his hands behind his back, he recalled. The man told her to get up, but it was difficult with her hands tied, she said.

That's when another man punched him in the face and told Zamir he had run over his partner, he said. Zamir replied that he did not run over anyone, he testified. The man told him they were the police, and Zamir told him they didn't know that.

“That's my partner's brain,” the officer recalled, pointing to Zamir's car. When Zamir saw the blood on his car, he realized that the speeder was a man and a police officer.

He described feeling “terrible” and asked if the officer was OK. He recalled praying for the man's recovery as he was taken to the police station, and recalled being shocked to hear the man had died.

During Zamir's cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Karen Simon suggested Zamir see the badge worn by Northrup's partner, Det. Const. Lisa Forbes and both officers identified themselves as police as they approached the car.

Zamir said he never saw the badge and the two did not identify themselves as police.

“I didn't do anything … if I hear this, why don't I stop?” – he answered.

Simone also said that Northrup, who is tall and large, was always visible to Zamir, but Zamir remembered the last time he saw Northrup when the couple was in the driver's side window and hitting a car.

As the car moved forward, he thought they were still there because the pounding continued, he said. When he turned back, he was sure the two were near the van that appeared because the impact stopped, but he didn't see them, he testified.

Zamir said he did not see anyone behind or in front of him when he was driving. “When I looked back, he was gone. I looked at the front and it was not there,” he said.

Taji suggested that Zamir speed up because he knew he had hit a man, but Zamir said he did it because he wanted to save his family.

Two crash reconstruction experts, one by the Crown and one by the defense, testified that Northrup's vehicle fell to the ground during a U-turn and was still on the ground when he was run over.

An expert called by the defense further testified that Zamir could not have been seen while Northrup was on the ground because he was in the vehicle's blind spot.

This Canadian Press report was first published on April 11, 2024.

Paola Lorijo, Canadian Press