Officers followed 'every lead' in review of Zameer case, OPP commissioner says
· Toronto Sun
Ontario’s top cop backed his service’s investigation into officer testimony at the trial of the man acquitted of murdering Toronto Police Const. Jeffrey Northrup, saying he takes exception to suggestions that the probe “lacked independence, failed to adhere to strict protocols or was influenced in any way by another service.
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“(Criminal investigation branch) investigators are highly trained and operate under strict investigative standards, legal requirements and internal review processes,” OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said in a statement released Thursday.
“Their conclusion was reached after re-examining all available evidence, following every lead and adhering with strict investigative standards and established procedures required in any criminal investigation.”
Report cast doubt on collision reconstruction
The results of the independent investigation, which were released Tuesday by Toronto Police, found that officers did not collude in their testimony at the trial of Umar Zameer, who was acquitted of murder in 2024 after Northrup was struck and killed in a downtown parking garage three years earlier.
The report also cast doubt on some of the details of the collision that were presented at the trial, during which Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy apologized to Zameer and concluded that the testifying officers had colluded and lied on the stand.
Since the report was released, Premier Doug Ford and the Toronto Police Association have demanded Molloy apologize to the officers who were investigated.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Toronto Star , the crash reconstructionist for Zameer’s defence team backed his report, which was corroborated at the time by a Toronto Police witness.
Zameer’s lawyer Nader Hasan also said he had “serious misgivings” about the report before it was released because neither he nor his client had been contacted by the OPP about the investigation.
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‘We stand by the report,’ commissioner says
Carrique said his service’s report came after a “thorough criminal investigation” into the officers’ conduct and was not a review of the case.
He said interviews were focused on digging up information that had not been provided under oath at the trial and that Zameer was not interviewed because “his version of the events” was already known.
Carrique also said a senior accredited OPP collision reconstructionist “independently” reviewed the Toronto Police report and found evidence that was “not previously identified or noted” after reviewing things such as videos, photographs and a 3-D scan of the scene.
“The OPP recognizes the importance of maintaining public trust, especially when police are the subject of an investigation,” Carrique said. “We stand by the report, the expert work of our investigators and collision reconstructionist and their findings.”