Justine Damond killing: Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor turns himself in to face murder charge
THE US police officer who shot and killed Aussie woman Justine Damond has been charged eight months after her death, while disturbing new details about the incident have been revealed.
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MINNEAPOLIS police officer Mohamed Noor has been charged with murder and manslaughter over the shooting death of former Australian life coach Justine Damond last year.
It comes as Damond’s final words were revealed and the officer’s mugshot released.
Officer Noor shot Damond in July when she called 911 to report what she thought was a sexual assault in the alley behind her home.
Court records show the charges include second degree manslaughter and third degree murder.
Officer Noor turned himself in at Hennepin County Jail shortly after a warrant was issued for his arrest this morning at Hennepin County District Court.
Court papers show he was booked into jail at 11:16am (3:16am AEDT) and was being held on $US500,000 ($650,000) bail.
According to the jail records, he is charged with third degree murder “perpetrating eminently dangerous act and evincing depraved mind” and second-degree manslaughter, “culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk.”
MORE DETAILS EMERGE
New detail about how Ms Ruszczyk Damond died were revealed in the charges.
The charge sheet confirms early accounts by Noor’s partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, who was driving their patrol car, that the pair heard a noise from behind their vehicle that made them concerned for their safety.
Officer Harrity has co-operated with investigators but so far Noor has declined to be interviewed. Neither officer had engaged their bodycameras during the call.
According to the charges, Harrity and Noor were driving in the alley behind the Damond home with their headlights off but their spotlight on shortly before midnight on July 15, 2017.
Harrity told investigators he had removed the safety on his gun before heading into the alley. He said he heard what sounded like a dog when he was behind their home but he didn’t see anything.
The squad car slowly drove at less than 5km about 50m down the alley without actually stopping, the charges said. About two minutes after arriving at the scene, Officer Noor reported a “code 4” into the squad computer, which meant he believed they were safe and didn’t need assistance.
Officer Harrity said the pair waited at the end of the alley for a cyclist to pass, and five seconds later, they both heard a voice like “a muffled voice or a whisper” and a thump behind their squad car and “caught a glimpse of a person’s head and shoulders outside his window”.
“Officer Harrity said he was startled and said ‘Oh sh*t’ or ‘Oh Jesus’. He said he perceived that his life was in danger, reached for his gun, unholstered it, and held it to his rib cage while pointing it downward. He said from the driver’s seat he had a better vantage point to determine a threat than Officer Noor would have had from the passenger seat,” the charges said.
Harrity said that both men feared for their lives: “We both got spooked”.
Harrity told investigators he couldn’t see the figure’s hands and that within seconds he heard a sound and saw a flash. As he looked out the window at Ms Damond, she had “put her hands on a gunshot wound on the left side of her abdomen and said ‘I’m dying’ or ‘I’m dead’.”
In the frantic moments after the gunshot, Harrity told investigators he got out of the car unarmed and told his colleague Noor to holster his gun. The pair then turned on their body cameras and performed CPR.
The charges said there was “no evidence” that “Officer Noor encountered, appreciated, investigated or confirmed a threat that justified the decision to use deadly force”.
“Instead, Officer Noor recklessly and intentionally fired his handgun from the passenger seat, a location at which he would have been less able than Officer Harrity to see and hear events on the other side of the squad car,” the charges said.
Officer Noor will face court for the first time on Wednesday local time.
If convicted of third-degree murder, Noor could face a maximum of 25 years in prison, although the presumptive or normal sentence, which is usually applied without aggravating factors, is 12 and a half years.
County Attorney Mike Freeman has a hard task ahead of him, given Minnesota authorities have never successfully prosecuted a police officer for a shooting death while on duty.
“We have a daunting task in front of us,” he said in a press conference.
He said that of 12,000 police shootings in the past 12 years, only 80 cases resulted in charges, with just a 25 per cent conviction rate.
Attorney Freeman said a grand jury had considered the matter for six weeks and that he had decided to pursue the third degree murder charge because Noor had showed a “depraved mind” in shooting blindly out the drivers’ side window.
“Justine was approaching the car unarmed. They couldn’t even tell whether it was a male or a female, an adult or a child,” he said, saying that since Officer Harrity was closest to the approaching person and could therefore see better, it was up to him to determine the best course of action.
Noor has been on fully-paid “administrative leave” since the shooting.
Damond’s father John Ruszczyk and her fiance Don Damond released a joint statement praising the decision.
“Justine’s family in Australia and the US applaud today’s decision to criminally charge Officer Noor with Justine’s murder as one step towards justice for this iniquitous act,” the said. “While we waited over eight months to come to this point, we are pleased with the way a grand jury and County Attorney Mike Freeman appear to have been diligent and thorough in investigating and ultimately determining that these charges are justified.”
“We remain hopeful that a strong case will be presented by the prosecutor, backed by verified and detailed forensic evidence, and that this will lead to a conviction,” they said. “No charges can bring Justine back. However, justice demands accountability for those responsible for recklessly killing the fellow citizens they are sworn to protect, and today’s actions reflect that.”
Damond’s killing drew worldwide headlines and led to the resignation of the city’s police chief.
The former Sydney vet and yoga teacher had moved to America’s midwest to marry her fiance, businessman Don Damond.
The pair were to be wed just weeks after she was killed.
Originally published as Justine Damond killing: Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor turns himself in to face murder charge
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