Cop sentenced to 57 months in prison over fatal shooting of Australian woman
MINNEAPOLIS: A former Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Thursday for the fatal shooting of an Australian woman who had called 911 to report a crime.
Mohamed Noor, 36, was convicted in 2019 of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond in a case that shocked this Minnesota city and sparked outrage in the victim’s home country.
Noor was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison on the murder charge but his conviction was overturned last month by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Hennepin County District Court Judge Kathryn Quaintance sentenced Noor on Thursday to 57 months in prison on the manslaughter charge with credit for the 908 days he has already spent in custody.
Damond, a yoga teacher with dual US-Australian nationality, was shot after Noor and his partner responded in their police cruiser to a late-night report made by Damond of a possible sexual assault.
The 40-year-old Damond had approached the police car after calling 911 twice to report a possible rape in the dark alley behind her home. No such assault was found to have occurred.
Quaintance said Noor shot ‘across the nose of his partner’ from the passenger seat of the police car and endangered the public when he killed Damond.
During his trial, Noor testified that he feared an ambush and shot Damond to protect his partner. But prosecutors insisted the shooting was unreasonable and contrary to police department training policy.
Shot in the abdomen, Damond died at the scene.
The shooting came at a time of heightened tensions over officerinvolved shootings in the United States.