Thank fucking goodness! That they’d try to prosecute this man at all was horribly corrupt. Cops frightened his family and never identified as cops. His response was completely normal.
This is a powerful victory for the citizens of this nation.
Hasan said the case should be a teachable moment for police and Canadians.
"About how we want police to act, how they should act, especially when they're in plain clothes," he said. "I think that some soul searching needs to be done on the part of many folks who were involved in this particular investigation."
I sincerely hope so but while fellow Canadians may I sincerely doubt many cops will get the right message out of this.
During the trial, two crash reconstructionist experts called by the defence and the Crown agreed Northrup was knocked down when Zameer reversed out of the parking spot.
The 31-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service was already on the ground in the laneway of the car when he was run over, the experts said.
However, three police officers testified that Northrup was standing in the laneway with his hands up when he was run over.
Zameer had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder after he ran over Northrup with his car in an underground parking garage beneath Toronto City Hall on July 2, 2021.
Jury deliberations began Thursday evening after a five-week trial where Zameer testified he didn't know Northrup and his partner were police, instead thinking his family was being ambushed by criminals.
Several times during the trial, the presiding judge questioned the Crown's changing theory about what happened on July 2, 2021, at one point saying she didn't see how the jury could convict Zameer of even the lesser second-degree murder charge.
During legal arguments not heard by the jury, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy repeatedly raised concerns about the prosecution's changing narrative about where and how Northrup was struck.
One such theory — that Northrup was "clearly visible" to Zameer when he was hit regardless of his position, which itself is in dispute — was abandoned only days before lawyers made their final arguments to the jury, after Molloy said she was struggling to understand it.
Earlier in the trial, after the Crown finished presenting its evidence and while the jury was absent, Molloy noted the discrepancy between the testimony of police officers who said Northrup was standing up when he was run over, and that of the prosecution's expert.
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