Shooting of Justine Damond

Shooting of Justine Damond
Date	July 15, 2017; 11:41 p.m. CDT (UTC–5)
Location	W. 51st Street alley between Washburn and Xerxes avenues, Fulton, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Coordinates	44.91071°N 93.31823°WCoordinates: 44.91071°N 93.31823°W
Type	Homicide by firearm
Participants	MPD Officer Mohamed Noor
Deaths	Justine Damond
Convicted	Mohamed Noor
Convictions	Third-degree murder and manslaughter
Sentence	12.5 years

On July 15, 2017, Justine Damond (née Ruszczyk)^[2]^[3] a 40-year-old Australian-American woman, was fatally shot by a 33-year-old Mohamed Noor, a Somali-American Minneapolis Police Department officer, after she had called 9-1-1 to report the possible assault of a woman in an alley behind her house. Occurring weeks after a high-profile manslaughter trial acquittal in the 2016 police shooting of Philando Castile, also in the Twin Cities metro area, the shooting exacerbated existing tensions and attracted national and international press.^[4]^[5]^[6]

On March 20, 2018, Noor was charged with second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder. Prosecutors later upgraded the charges against Noor to second-degree intentional murder. In April 2019, Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter, but acquitted of intentional second-degree murder.^[7] In June 2019, Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.^[8] Damond's family brought a civil lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis alleging violation of Damond's civil rights, which the city settled for $US20 million,^[9] one of the largest-ever settlements in a suit involving a police killing.^[8]

Background[edit]

Justine Damond[edit]

Justine Damond

Justine Maia Damond (April 4, 1977 – July 15, 2017) grew up in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and attended Manly High School.^[10] She graduated in 2002 from the University of Sydney as a veterinarian, then worked as a spiritual healer and meditation coach. She met Don Damond, a U.S. citizen, while attending a neuroscience workshop.^[11] The couple became engaged on December 29, 2014,^[12] and planned to marry in August 2017. Damond stopped using her surname Ruszczyk and took the Damond's family name ahead of their marriage.^[13] Damond held dual Australia and United States citizenship, as her father, John Ruszczyk, holds US citizenship.^[14]

Mohamed Noor[edit]

Mohamed Mohamed Noor^[15] (born October 20, 1985),^[16] was the officer who shot Damond. Noor's partner, Matthew Harrity (then 25 years old), was the driver of their squad car.^[17] Noor had been lauded in the past by Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges and the local Somali community as one of the first Somali-American police officers in the area.^[18] At the time of the shooting, Noor had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for 21 months; Harrity had been on the force for one year.^[17]

In two years as a police officer, Noor had three formal complaints against him, two of which, as of September 2017, were pending resolution. In a separate case from May 2017, he was being sued for allegedly assaulting a woman while on duty.^[19]

Following the deadly shooting, the Star Tribune reported Noor's police training had been "fast tracked", making reference to the seven-month immersive training program for cadets; some suburban police departments see the cadet programs as a way to add diversity to their police forces quickly.^[20] Noor's police training had been part of the cadet program for the Minneapolis Police Department, an accelerated^[20] seven-month program aimed at candidates who already have a college degree and wish to enter law enforcement. Former police chief Janeé Harteau stood by Noor's training:

We have a very robust training and hiring process ... This officer completed that training very well, just like every officer. He was very suited to be on the street ... I believe the actions in question go against who we are as a department, how we train, and the expectations we are as a department. These were the actions of one individual.^[21]

On July 23, 2017, MPD and Council Member Elizabeth Glidden denied news reports of there being a "fast-track" seven-month MPD training program.^[22]^[23] In September 2018, it was reported that in 2015, two psychiatrists and other training officers had raised concerns about Noor's fitness for police duty.^[24] Two months before the shooting, Noor pointed a gun at the head of a driver he had pulled over for a minor traffic violation.^[24]

Incident[edit]

On the night of the shooting, Damond called 9-1-1 at 11:27 p.m., and again eight minutes later, 11:35 p.m.^[25] She reported that she thought she heard a woman either having sex or being raped.^[26] Dispatchers categorized the call as "unknown trouble: female screaming"—a relatively low priority.^[27] Officers responded to the area, the low-crime neighborhood of Fulton in southwestern Minneapolis,^[27] and found no suspects or signs of the suspected rape that had prompted Damond's telephone calls to 9-1-1.^[28]

Officers Noor and Harrity, after driving through an alley with the lights on their police Ford Explorer off, heard no signs of criminal activity.^[27] As the two partners prepared to leave, Noor "entered 'Code Four' into the cruiser's computer, meaning the scene was safe."^[27] Harrity would indicate "that he was startled by a loud sound near the squad," and immediately, then, Damond approached the police car's driver-side window.^[29] Harrity drew his weapon, but, pointed it downward, did not fire.^[30] Noor, however, fired once through the open window, fatally striking Damond in the abdomen.^[27]^[29] Damond was unarmed and barefoot.^[27] The officers attempted CPR to no avail; Damond died 20 minutes later.^[31]Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).

Harrity later told a supervisor, "We both got spooked."^[27] At Noor's trial, Harrity testified of hearing "something hit the car and I also hear some sort of murmur," and that he feared an "ambush," but deemed it "premature" to use deadly force.^[30] Noor testified that he did not see Damond's hand or any object in the hand, but nonetheless believed that his partner "feared for his life" and "there was a threat."^[32] At Noor's trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Damond's fingerprints were not on the police car, suggesting she never made contact with it, and prosecutors called two expert witnesses on the police use of force, who testified that Noor's decision to shoot was unreasonable.^[33]

Both officers had their body cameras switched off.^[34] Minneapolis introduced police body cameras in 2016, but their activation was not mandatory in all situations.^[35] No audio or video recordings captured the killing,^[27] although a 16-year-old cyclist took cell-phone video of the scene after the shooting.^[36]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Justine_Damond}

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Justine_Damond

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Replies to This Discussion

Shooting of Justine Damond

Background[edit]

Justine Damond[edit]

Mohamed Noor[edit]

Incident[edit]

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The 4 Freedoms

Date	July 15, 2017 11:41 p.m. CDT (UTC–5)^[1]
Location	W. 51st Street alley between Washburn and Xerxes avenues, Fulton, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Coordinates	44.91071°N 93.31823°WCoordinates: 44.91071°N 93.31823°W
Type	Homicide by firearm
Participants	MPD Officer Mohamed Noor
Deaths	Justine Damond
Convicted	Mohamed Noor
Convictions	Third-degree murder and manslaughter
Sentence	12.5 years