‘SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO DIE’
According to Washington Post data, 540 people had already been shot dead by police in the US in 2017 before Justine Damond became the next victim of the disturbing phenomenon. What made her case stand out was that Damond, 40, was an unarmed Australian woman who had summoned the police for help.
It was late on a warm summer evening on July 15 when Damond—a meditation teacher and yoga instructor who grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches—called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in a laneway behind the Minneapolis, Minnesota, home she shared with her American fiancé, Don Damond. Minutes later, as she approached the driver of the attending police car she was allegedly shot dead, in her pyjamas, by the officer in the passenger seat, Mohamed Noor, 31. Why this happened remains a mystery. There is no footage of the incident—the officers’ chest cameras were turned off— and Noor declined to be interviewed by investigators. Meanwhile, the killing became a focal point of community anger leading to protests about police accountability and reform.
Much to the anguish of Damond’s family, charges are yet to be laid over the killing. At Damond’s memorial, in August, her father, John Ruszczyk, captured the family’s continuing disbelief and grief. “Justine should not have died,” he said. “I should have been on a plane flying to a wedding—instead it’s a funeral. I feel crushed.”