'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer

'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.

“We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.”

That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.

A jury found the 34-year-old accountant not guilty on Sunday following a weeks-long trial that looked at the events of July 2, 2021, when Toronto Police Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup was run over by Zameer in the underground parking garage of Nathan Phillips Square shortly after midnight. Northrup was transported to hospital where he died.

“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is just not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on. I'm trying my best and I will keep trying my best,” he said.

“That night was a nightmare for us. And I don't know when it will go away. But that night and then the days forward and then the years, I don't know how long it will haunt us,” he said.

Zameer had pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree murder laid in connection with the incident.

He was in his car with his pregnant wife and young child following Canada Day celebrations at the downtown square when Northrup and his partner, both in plainclothes at the time, approached his vehicle in the parking garage as they investigated a stabbing in the area. Zameer wasn’t involved in the stabbing and said he didn’t know the pair were police officers.