Updated Monday, July 17, 2017, 2:20 p.m. EDT: Well, that didn’t take long at all. The Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed a 40-year-old Australian native in an alley behind her home Saturday night after she called 911 to report a disturbance has been identified—with pictures and everything.
According to the Star Tribune, a source confirmed that Officer Mohamed Noor was the shooter in the incident. A city newsletter describes Noor as the first Somali police officer to patrol the 5th Precinct in southwest Minneapolis. He joined the department in March 2015.
Before joining the department, he worked in property management in commercial and residential properties in Minneapolis and St. Louis and earned a degree in economics and business administration from Augsburg College, the newsletter detailed.
Justine Damond, a yoga and meditation teacher who originated from Australia, was shot over the weekend while officers were responding to a 911 call of a “possible assault.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed that an autopsy has been completed in the case, although details remain unclear. The agency said that the investigation “does not determine whether a law enforcement agency policy was violated. That would be reviewed through the agency’s internal affairs process.”
Earlier:
An Australian native who was living in Minneapolis was fatally shot by local police after calling 911 to report a possible assault in an alley behind her home Saturday night.
According to the Star Tribune, the woman, Justine Damond, who hailed from Sydney, lived with her fiance in the city’s Fulton neighborhood.
Details of what exactly happened that night remain murky, but three sources with knowledge of the incident told the Tribune that two officers in one squad car pulled into the alley in response to the 911 call. Damond, who was in her pajamas, went to the driver’s side door and spoke to the driver. The officer in the passenger seat then pulled his gun and shot Damond—a yoga and meditation teacher—through the driver’s side door, the sources told the Tribune. No weapon was found at the scene.
“Two Minneapolis police officers responded to a 911 call of a possible assault just north of the 5100 block of Washburn Avenue South just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday,” the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a news release that offered few details. “At one point, an officer fired their weapon, fatally striking a woman.
During the incident, the officers’ body cameras were turned off and the squad camera did not capture the incident, either, the BCA said.
“The BCA’s investigation is in its early stages. More information will be available once initial interviews with incident participants and any witnesses are complete. … The officers’ body cameras were not turned on at the time and the squad camera did not capture the incident. Investigators are attempting to determine whether any video of the incident exists,” the statement added.
The two officers involved in the shooting are currently on paid administrative leave per standard procedure.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called the shooting “tragic.” The mayor, along with Assistant Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and City Council Member Linea Palmisana, who represents the 13th Ward, held a press conference late Sunday afternoon in an attempt to address the shooting.
“I am heartsick and deeply disturbed by the fatal officer-involved shooting that happened last night,” Hodges said.
“We have few facts at this point,” she said. “I want to know more. I call on the BCA to share as much information with all of us as quickly as they can.
“I have questions about why the bodycams weren’t on,” she added.
Zach Damond, 22, whose father, Don, was to set to marry Justine in August, demanded answers as to why she was dead. The Tribune notes that although Justine and Don were yet to be married, Justine referred to herself as Justine Damond on her personal website.
“Basically, my mom’s dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don’t know,” Zach Damond said of the incident. “I demand answers. If anybody can help, just call police and demand answers. I’m so done with all this violence.”
Zach Damond said that Justine had called police after she “heard a sound in the alley.”
On Sunday night, the community held a vigil, where about 50 friends and neighbors held hands in a semicircle around the spot where Justine Damond fell. Another 200 or more people watched from the sidewalk and street, standing in solidarity.
Leslie Redmond, from the local NAACP, said that she and other members of the organization attended to “stand in solidarity with the family.”
Nekima Levy-Pounds, one of three mayoral candidates who attended the vigil, said, “I hope and pray this is a wake-up call for the community to stop being divided by race and socioeconomic status ... for treating everybody with respect.”
Read more at the Star Tribune.