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Justine Damond shooting 'a perfect storm with tragic consequences', court hears Justine Damond shooting: fiance tells US court he told her to call police
(about 3 hours later)
A Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed the Australian life coach Justine Ruszczyk Damond as she approached his squad car after calling 911 feared an ambush, his attorney has told a court, calling it “a perfect storm with tragic consequences”. Justine Ruszczyk Damond’s fiance has given heart-wrenching testimony in a US court about his confusion and shock when a police officer called to say the Australian woman had been shot dead.
Mohamed Noor faces charges of murder and manslaughter in the 2017 death of Damond. In his opening statement at Noor’s trial on Tuesday, the defense attorney Peter Wold said the officer and his partner were rolling down a dark alley in response to Damond’s 911 calls about a possible sexual assault when a bicyclist appeared in front of them and they heard “a bang”. Don Damond, a US casino executive, wept on the witness stand in Minneapolis on Tuesday as he told how he was in Las Vegas on business the evening of 15 July 2017.
“It is the next split second that this case is all about,” Wold said. Damond, a life coach, had called him at 11.37pm from their Minneapolis home worried that a woman was making loud “sex sounds” near an alley behind their house and possibly was being raped.
Noor fired a single shot, killing Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the US and Australia. Justine Damond: plan to re-enact shooting by moonlight is dropped
Attorneys for Noor, who was fired after being charged in the case and has never talked to investigators about what happened, argue that he used reasonable force to defend himself and his partner from a perceived threat. Don Damond said he had asked her to call police. The last words she said to him were, “OK, the police are here.”
The prosecutor Patrick Lofton, in his opening remarks, questioned a statement from Noor’s partner, Matthew Harrity, that he heard a thump right before the shooting. Lofton said Harrity never said anything at the scene about such a noise, instead mentioning it for the first time some days later in an interview with investigators. The businessman said he had repeatedly tried to call and text her but had received no answer and presumed she was fine and in bed.
Why? The question that still hangs over Justine Damond's killing A few hours later a Minneapolis police officer called. “He said, ‘There has been a shooting and we believe Justine is deceased because of that shooting,’” Don Damond told packed Hennepin county courtroom.
Lofton also said investigators found no forensic evidence to show that Damond had touched the squad car before she was shot, an assertion that seemed aimed at the possibility that she had slapped or hit it upon approaching the officers. He said he had not believed what the officer was saying and told him: “You have to tell me more.”
Lofton also wondered why other officers responding to the scene didn’t consistently have their cameras switched on. The officers did not turn on their body cameras until after the shooting, and there was no squad car video. Lofton noted that a sergeant taking statements had her camera on when she talked to Harrity, but off when she talked to Noor. The officer did not say that a Minneapolis police officer, Mohamed Noor, had shot Damond as she approached their patrol car.
“We’ll never hear what Noor said,” he said. Noor, 33, has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Tuesday’s opening statements came after six days of jury selection for Noor. Damond was a life coach who had been engaged to be married in just a month’s time. Noor, 33, is a Somali American whose arrival on the force just a couple of years earlier had been trumpeted by city leaders working to diversify the police force. After receiving the call, Don Damond said, he had gone to Las Vegas airport in an attempt to fly back to Minneapolis.
Damond called 911 twice, then called her fiance and hung up when police arrived, Lofton said. One minute and 19 seconds later, Damond was cradling a gunshot wound to her abdomen and saying, “I’m dying,” Lofton added. While waiting there in the early hours of 16 July, a special agent from Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension called his mobile and told him a police officer had shot his fiancee.
Prosecutors must prove that Noor acted unreasonably when he shot Damond. Minnesota law allows police officers to use deadly force to protect themselves or their partners from death or great bodily harm, but prosecutors say there is no evidence he faced a threat that justified deadly force. They charged Noor with second-degree intentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. “I was in shock,” Don Damond said. “I was shaking. I said, ‘Please treat her body with dignity.’”
Earlier Tuesday, the Hennepin county district Judge Kathryn Quaintance relented on restrictions that would have prevented the public and media from viewing video evidence introduced in the case. That’s expected to include body-camera video that shows efforts to save Damond. Quaintance had cited a desire to protect Damond’s privacy, but a coalition of media groups including the Associated Press had challenged the ban. Earlier on Tuesday Noor’s lawyer Peter Wold told the jury in his opening statement the officer had feared he was the victim of an ambush when Damond suddenly approached the patrol car in the dark alley.
“The court, like the jury, must follow the law – even if I disagree with it,” said Quaintance. The shooting, Wold said, “was a perfect storm with tragic circumstances”.
Noor’s attorneys have not said whether he will testify. Damond had approach the car after the two officers could not find the woman who Damond feared was being raped.
“It was a classic ambush scenario set-up,” Woldsaid.
He said Damond had thumped the police car and Noor’s startled partner, Matthew Harrity, who was driving, had said “Oh, Jesus” and grabbed his gun.
Justine Damond: sunrise memorial for shooting victim held at Sydney beach
Noor, in the front passenger seat, shot past Harrity and out the driver’s side window, striking Damond in the stomach.
“Noor shoots once to protect his partner and himself,” Wold said. “It was a perfect storm with tragic circumstances.”
Noor was fired from the police force last year when charged.
The prosecutor Patrick Lofton, in his opening address, said there was no evidence Damond had touched the car.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
Damond’s father, John, and stepmother, Maryan Heffernan, sat in the front row of the courtroom.
Justine Damond shootingJustine Damond shooting
US policingUS policing
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