Umar Zameer and his lawyers following the not guilty verdict at his April, 2024, murder trial in Toronto.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
An Ontario Provincial Police probe into alleged collusion by Toronto police at a high-profile murder trial in 2024 has found the officers were not dishonest when they testified – and is calling into question critical evidence that led a judge to assert that they lied.
The OPP were asked by Toronto Police to review the conduct and testimony of three officers after the acquittal of Umar Zameer, who had been charged with first-degree murder after he drove over Detective Constable Jeffrey Northrup, killing him, in 2021.
The judge in the case, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy, told the jury that they should consider the possibility that the three officers had colluded and been dishonest about what they saw because, she said, it was inconsistent with the expert evidence about how Det. Constable Northrup was run over.
In remarks made after Mr. Zameer’s acquittal, Justice Molloy also said that because two of the officers’ accounts dovetailed so closely with the testimony of the third officer, she was left with the “inexorable conclusion that they not only lied, but they colluded to lie.”
In the OPP’s investigative report, which was made public by Toronto Police on Tuesday, the force concluded that a key detail of the officers’ testimony – where and how Det. Constable Northrup was struck by Mr. Zameer’s car – was accurate.
“The similarity in the officers’ accounts reflects their shared observations of the same event, not evidence of intentional deceit or collusion,” the report found.
Although the report has no bearing on Mr. Zameer’s acquittal, the document attempts to cast doubt on the 2024 findings against the officers and reopen an issue outside the confines of the courtroom.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at a press conference Tuesday that the officers – Det. Constables Lisa Forbes, Scharnil Pais and Antonio Correa – have been vindicated by the report.
“Their reputations were questioned publicly and repeatedly, their credibility was challenged, and in the court of public opinion, some had convicted them,” Chief Demkiw said. “That is an extraordinary heavy burden for anyone to carry, but we cannot forget that before any of this happened, these officers had already experienced something deeply traumatic. They witnessed the death of their colleague, and, in Detective Forbes’s case, the death of a partner.”
Det. Constable Northrup was a 31-year veteran of the police service. Chief Demkiw expressed condolences to his wife, Margaret, who attended the press conference Tuesday.
The Globe and Mail requested comment from Justice Molloy through the Ontario Superior Court, but did not immediately hear back Tuesday. The report acknowledged that the judge was working with the evidence before her, and “as such, these conclusions reflect the constraints of the trial record rather than the full breadth of available evidence.”
Nader Hasan, a lawyer for Mr. Zameer, said his client was disappointed by the OPP’s findings. They were not contacted during the OPP investigation, and only saw the report after it became public Tuesday.
“This wasn’t a retrial. This was a report that they commissioned to reach an outcome that they wanted, without the benefit of evidence actually being tested. This is not a serious report, and I don’t think that anyone who reads it – who actually followed the trial and followed the evidence at trial – will take it seriously.”
The fatal encounter occurred late at night in the underground parking lot at Toronto’s City Hall, after Mr. Zameer left a Canada Day celebration with his pregnant wife and toddler son. They had just gotten into their BMW and their son wasn’t yet buckled into his car seat when two people began banging on their windows.
They were plainclothes police officers who were looking for a purported stabbing suspect with brown skin.
Terrified that he was being carjacked, Mr. Zameer locked the car doors and attempted to speed off. He testified at trial that he didn’t realize he’d hit anyone – never mind a police officer – until after his arrest.
A photo of Toronto Police officer Jeffrey Northrup at his funeral service in 2024.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
At his trial in 2024, much debate hinged on the location of Det. Constable Northrup at the time that he was hit.
The three officers who’d been at the scene with him testified that he was standing up with his hands raised. But two collision reconstruction experts, one with the Toronto Police Service and one testifying for the defence, gave evidence at trial that the officer was likely already on the ground when he was run over – having fallen when Mr. Zameer first reversed before accelerating forward.
In her charge to the jury, Justice Molloy said that “all three officers would have to be wrong about this detail in exactly the same way for this theory to make sense. That also raises an issue of whether, if they were wrong about where he was standing, they may also be wrong about if he was standing in front of the BMW at all. When three versions of an event are wrong, and wrong in the same way, you must also consider whether there has been collusion between those witnesses.”
But the OPP’s reinvestigation of the case, which included engaging its own expert reconstructionist, concluded that the officers were correct and that Det. Constable Northrup was standing in front of the BMW when he was run over and killed.
The report cites multiple reasons for this conclusion, including video analysis and an examination of the vehicle.
For instance, the OPP examined security-camera footage from the parking garage. Although the view of the collision was obstructed by a pillar, the investigators observed that light from the BMW’s left headlamp could not be seen in the footage. Upon closer examination of the video, the investigators concluded the officer was in front of the BMW “obscuring the headlamp from view.”
“The evidence showed that Detective Constable Northrup was standing in front of the BMW when it accelerated forward and struck him down,” the report concluded. “This finding matches the statements, notes and testimony of the three eyewitness officers.”
Chief Demkiw acknowledged Tuesday that the report “identified deficiencies in the original Toronto Police Service collision reconstruction.”
“Those findings reinforce the need to continue strengthening investigative review, accountability and oversight within the service,” he said. “Since 2021, the Traffic Services Collision Reconstruction Unit has undergone significant changes in training and investigative practices. These improvements reflect an ongoing effort to strengthen the quality of rigour and oversight of collision reconstruction work, in addition to broader efforts to improve quality assurance across the service.”
Barry Raftery, the crash reconstructionist who testified for the defence at trial, rejected the OPP’s finding that Det. Constable Northrup was upright when he was struck.
“I frankly do not know how any truly independent reconstructionist could arrive at a conclusion that Constable Northrup was standing up when he was first contacted by the Zameer vehicle,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Mr. Raftery reiterated his conclusion that Det. Constable Northrup was already on the ground when he was run over.
“Justice Molloy heard my evidence (and saw the explanatory drawings that were filed as Exhibits). Her Honour clearly understood the evidence. I cannot comment on why three officers described something that did not happen, because that’s not my business,” he said.
The OPP team also reviewed the timelines and statements of the three officers in the hours and days after the incident. They found “no opportunity for Detective Constable Forbes to have consulted, communicated or otherwise collaborated with Detective Constables Pais and Correa prior to her statement with homicide investigators.”
They concluded that Det. Constables Pais and Correa had “limited opportunity to consult and collude with each other prior to their statements to homicide investigators.”
The report also examined Det. Constables Pais and Correa’s use of their firearms at the scene, which was disputed at trial.
In her charge to the jury, Justice Molloy said that Det. Constables Pais and Correa lied about pointing their firearms at Mr. Zameer and his wife as they demanded they get out of the car.
The OPP found the judge’s assertion to be an “incorrect interpretation of the officers’ testimony at trial.”
“The trial judge did not account for the difference between the user’s perspective and that of an observer. To someone downrange or watching from a distance, a drawn firearm may appear to be pointed directly at them, even when the officer is looking over the weapon and assessing the situation,” the report found.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell called on Justice Molloy to apologize.
“Today, I clearly say to Justice Molloy: You were wrong,” he said.
With a report from Jill Mahoney