Toronto’s Top Cop Asks OPP for Independent Review After Zameer Trial Judge Questions Officer Testimony

Toronto’s police chief is calling on the Ontario Provincial Police to conduct an independent review after the judge in the murder trial of Umar Zameer expressed concern about the validity of officer testimony. Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy told jurors prior to deliberation last week that the police officers’ testimony against Mr. Zameer didn’t match the physical evidence in the case and advised them to consider the possibility of police collusion. After four days of deliberation, jurors on April 21 acquitted Mr. Zameer of first- and second-degree murder in the July 2, 2021, death of Detective-Constable Jeffrey Northrup. He was also found not guilty of manslaughter, signaling the jury’s belief that Det.-Const. Northrup’s death after being struck by Mr. Zameer’s BMW in an underground parking garage at Toronto City Hall was an accident....