A man accused of running over a Toronto police officer nearly three years ago offered a tearful apology to the man’s family in court this morning.

Umar Zameer told a packed courtroom he cannot stop thinking about the day Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup died, that he didn’t mean to hurt the officer and wishes he could bring him back.

Moments earlier, Zameer described feeling “horrified” when he learned that what he’d thought was a speed bump had in fact been a man – and a police officer.

He recalled praying the man would be OK as he was taken to the police station, and recalled his shock at hearing the man had died.

Zameer has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Northrup’s death. The officer died after he was hit by a vehicle in an underground parking garage on July 2, 2021.

Court has previously heard that Northrup and his partner – both dressed in plain clothes – were investigating a stabbing when they went into the garage underneath Toronto City Hall. Zameer was not involved in the stabbing.

Crown prosecutors allege Zameer chose to make a series of manoeuvres with his car that caused Northrup’s death, but the defence says the officer’s death was a tragic accident.

Defence lawyers say neither Zameer nor his wife – who was eight months pregnant at the time – knew that the people who approached them in the largely empty parking garage were police officers. Their young son was also with them at the time.

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

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