Officers charged in Toronto police deaths thought to be criminals

A man accused of running over a Toronto police officer nearly three years ago tearfully recounted the moment he thought his family was being chased by criminals during his trial Thursday.

Umar Zamir has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup died on July 2, 2021 after being hit by a car in an underground parking lot.

According to the court, Zamir was with his pregnant wife and young son in downtown Toronto to celebrate Canada Day.

He and his family were getting ready to drive their BMW out of the garage around midnight when Zamir said he saw a man and a woman in plain clothes running towards the car.

The woman tapped on the car window and pointed down.

Zamir said that he did not understand what this gesture meant. He didn't know if the woman was asking him to open the car or roll down the window.

Const. Jeffrey Northrup died in 2021 after being hit by a car in the City Hall garage. (Toronto Police Service/Twitter)

“I thought they were going to rob us,” he said. The couple did not identify themselves as police, he added.

He said he quickly pressed the button to lock the car door. When he did, he said the pair started hitting the car.

“They were shouting 'stop, stop, get out of the car,'” he recalled.

The storm was so violent that her two-year-old son, who was in a car seat in the back, began to cry.

Zamir said he walked away from the pair and started walking forward to exit the parking lot. As he did so, he said a dark gray van “came out of nowhere” and blocked it.

During his testimony Tuesday, Zamir broke down in tears as he apologized to Det.-Const. The Northrup family. “I didn't want to hurt your father,” he said. “I want it back.” (Pam Davis/CBC)

“I was terrified,” she said. “I thought, it's not just two people, it's the whole gang.”

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He said his wife, sitting next to him in the passenger seat, started hyperventilating.

“I remember he couldn't even pronounce my name correctly,” Zamir said, adding that he worried the fear had started his labor.

She said she looked back, put her hand on her crying son's lap and turned the car around.

The knocking and shouting stopped only when he turned back, he said. As he drove forward, he noticed what he thought was a speed bump, he said.

As he walked toward the exit of the parking garage, he said he told his wife to call the police because he was afraid the van would follow them. He saw police officers in the area at night.

“I thought they would come right down and save us,” he said.

Umar Zamir, left, describes to Crown Prosecutor Karen Simon how Const. Lisa Forbes was pointing it out her car window. (Pam Davis/CBC)

Accused witness punched him in the face

After leaving the exit, Zamir said he was hit from behind. A man got out of the car, pointed a gun at him and ordered him to get out of the car. Zamir said that he left immediately.

“I thought he was going to take it down at any moment,” he said. “I didn't want (my son) to see that.”

Zamir said he was scared and urinated while getting out of the car. The man told her to lie down. After he did so, her hands were cuffed from behind, he said.

At that time, the man ordered Zamir to stand up. As Zamir tried to stand up with his hands tied, he said the second man approached him and punched him in the face.

“(The second man) said, 'You ran over my partner,'” Zamir said. “I didn't run over anyone,” I said. He said, “We are the police.''

It was the first time Zamir had heard the word “police,” he testified Thursday.

In response, Zamir told the other man that he didn't know they were the police and that his family had indeed called the police. The man nodded, then turned and pointed to the blood on the BMW.

“He said, 'Look at this. “This is my partner's brain,” Zamir recalled.

He told the jury that was the moment he thought it might be the speeder he was driving.

The accused prayed that the officer would be fine

In court on Thursday, Zamir said he was in disbelief after learning he had hit someone. After he was cuffed, he said he was taken to the police station in a “metal van.”

“The whole time in the van, I was praying that the man would be okay,” Zamir said.

After being at the police station, he was informed that the person who hit him had died. “I couldn't feel the ground under my feet. “I couldn't believe someone died under my car.”

When told of Northrup's death, Zamir began to cry again in the witness box. He turned to a seat in the courtroom reserved for the officer's family and repeatedly apologized to the officer's children.

“I didn't mean to hurt your father,” Zamir said. “I want it back.”

Northrup is survived by his wife and three children.

“Every time I think about the family, my heart bleeds,” said Zamir.

He said he knew about the “father-son bond.” Although he had one son at the time of the incident, the 34-year-old accountant is now a father of three.

He says the death of the defense officer is a tragedy

During cross-examination Thursday, Crown prosecutor Karen Simon told Zamir that she could see a man and a woman approaching her car — Northrup and his partner, Sgt. Lisa Forbes – wearing police badges.

However, Zamir said he did not see any sign of the pair at the time.

Simone also testified that Northrup and Forbes told Zamir they were police when they approached his car.

But Zamir said the pair never called themselves police.

“If they said 'police,' why wouldn't I stop?” Why don't I talk to them?' Zamir said. “I didn't do anything.”

Crown prosecutors Michael Cantlon and Karen Simon are in court on Tuesday. Cross-examining Zamir, Simone suggested that a man and woman who approached his car on July 1, 2021 identify themselves as police, but Zamir said they would not. (Pam Davis/CBC)

The court heard Northrup and his partner – both plainclothes – 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 knew the men who approached them in the vacant garage were police officers.