Hennepin Co. Attorney Praises Latest Decision In Noor Case

MINNEAPOLIS — The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Monday praised the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ decision that reaffirmed the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor.

Noor was found guilty of third-degree murder in the July 15, 2017 shooting death of Justine Damond Ruszczyk.

"After reviewing the evidence from the investigation, we concluded that a third-degree murder charge was one of several appropriate charges given the facts of this case and for holding police officers accountable when their use of deadly force is unlawful and excessive," the attorney's office said in a statement.

"Successful prosecutions of police officers’ unlawful use of deadly force are rare in the United State. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged this case because of Officer Noor’s outrageous conduct. We were criticized for bringing that charge. But our prosecutors did remarkable work and the jury agreed and found him guilty. Now the Minnesota Court of Appeals has supported our legal theory as well."

Noor now plans to ask the Minnesota Supreme Court to review the decision upholding, reports KARE 11.

Noor fatally shot Damond, a native of Australia who moved to Minneapolis, minutes after she made a 911 call to report a disturbance behind her Minneapolis home. She lived on Washburn Avenue South with her fiancé, Don Damond, 50, whom she had planned to marry in August 2017, one month after the shooting occurred.

Transcripts released by the city of Minneapolis show how Damond spent her final moments attempting to help a stranger she believed was possibly being raped.

"Hi, I'm, I can hear someone out the back and I, I'm not sure if she's having sex or being raped," she told a police dispatch at 11:27 p.m. on July 15, 2017. "It sounds like sex noises, but it's been going on for a while and I think she tried to say help and it sounds distressed."

A second transcript shows Damond calling 911 back to confirm police were on their way.

Officers Matthew Harrity and his partner Noor responded to the call.

Harrity drove their squad car into the alley on 50th Street. He turned off the headlights and dimmed the computer screen as they drove down the alley, but used his spotlight to look for people on the driver's side of the car, according to the criminal complaint.

The officers did not encounter anyone while driving through the alley. Noor entered "Code 4" into the squad computer, which communicates to dispatch they were safe and needed no assistance.

Five to ten seconds later, Harrity heard a voice as well as "a thump" somewhere behind him on the squad car, and caught a glimpse of a person's head and shoulders outside his window. He could not see whether the person was a man or woman.

He said he perceived his life was in danger, reached for his gun, unholstered it, and held it to his ribcage while pointing it downward. He said that from the driver's seat he had a better vantage point to determine a threat than Noor would have had from the passenger seat.

Harrity then heard a sound that sounded like a "light bulb dropping on the floor" and saw a flash. After first checking to see if he had been shot, he looked to his right and saw Noor with his right arm extended in the direction of Harrity, according to the criminal complaint.

Outside the squad car, Damond put her hands on a gunshot wound and said either "I'm dying" or "I'm dead," the complaint states. She died at the scene