Killer cop ‘jumpy’

THE US police officer who gunned down a Sydney woman is known in the townhouse complex where his family lives as quick-tempered, “jumpy” and “extremely nervous”.

New insight into the character of Mohamed Noor emerged yesterday as investigators released transcripts of the two emergency calls Australian life coach Justine Damond made just before Noor shot her dead last Saturday night.

Noor, 31, the oldest of 10 children, is a frequent presence at his parents’ modest two-storey home.

Forklift driver Chris Miller, 49, who has lived next door for the past two years, said he wasn’t surprised to learn Noor was the officer who gunned down Ms Damond after she called emergency services about what she thought was a sexual assault taking place in the alley behind her house.

“He is extremely nervous ... he is a little jumpy ... he doesn’t really respect women, the least thing you say to him can set him off,” Mr Miller said.

“When they say a policeman shot an Australian lady I thought ‘uh, oh’ but then when they said who it was I was like, ‘OK’.”

He said Noor, who has refused to explain to investigators what led him to shoot dead bride-to-be Damond, was an ill-tempered presence in the townhouse block.

“He has little respect for women, he has little respect for blacks and kids,” Mr Miller, an African-American, said. “He has an air like you just couldn’t really be around him.”

Noor’s partner, Officer Matt Harrity, told investigators from Minnesota’s Bureau of Crime Apprehension the 31year-old cop shot Ms Damond as she approached their squad car when a loud noise erupted.

It looks increasingly likely Noor’s defence will be that he panicked and believed his squad car was under attack after the noise – described by some sources as a banging on the car – and seeing a figure in the dark moving towards them.

Harrity’s lawyer yesterday described their fear of being attacked as “reasonable” given recent cop killings in the US.

Noor’s gun was on his lap – and not in his holster – at the time on the incident.

But claims of an ambush yesterday infuriated Ms Damond’s family, whose lawyer told US television they had no “basis in fact” and were “ludicrous”.