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Jury acquits Umar Zameer as judge gives rare apology: ‘Deepest apologies for what you have been through’!

• Jurors found the 34-year-old accountant not guilty of all charges in the death of Const. Jeffrey Northrup.

Umar Zameer, right, speaks to media, with lawyers Nader Hasan, middle, and Alexandra Heine. 

Toronto, Canada: A jury has acquitted Umar Zameer in the death of Toronto police Const. Jeffrey Northrup, accepting that what happened in the parking garage below Nathan Phillips Square early July 2, 2021 was a horrible, tragic accident and not a crime.

“Canada didn’t let injustice to happen so I thank Canada,” the 34-year-old accountant said standing outside the downtown Toronto courthouse with his relieved and happy lawyers, Nader Hasan and Alexandra Heine. Zameer called them his “angels.”

On Sunday, after three days of deliberations, jurors found the 34-year-old accountant not guilty of all charges including first- and second-degree murder and manslaughter. Zameer was on trial for first-degree murder because Northrup was a police officer killed in the execution of his duties.

When the verdict was read out, Zameer gasped, and then started crying loudly as he hugged Nader and Heine, while his wife, Aaida Shaikh, cried into the shoulders of family members seated in the body of the courtroom.

“Mr. Zameer, you’re free to go, sir,” Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy. “You have my … deepest apologies for what you have been through.” Zameer walked quickly to the front row of the courtroom and embraced his wife for several minutes, both weeping loudly.

Molloy also thanked jurors, telling them it had been a “long, hard haul. Thank you so much for your service. You’re now discharged.”

After the jury’s decision Northrup’s widow, Margaret Northrup, cried on the other side of the courtroom as she hugged members of the Toronto Police Association (TPA). Later, outside the courthouse she thanked the prosecutors and police, including Chief Myron Demkiw, and the Toronto Police Association.