A Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman in July minutes after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home was charged Tuesday with murder and manslaughter. Damond’s death drew international attention, cost the police chief her job and forced major revisions to the department’s policy on body cameras. Damond, 40, a life coach and motivational speaker from Sydney, called 911 on July 15 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. When Noor and his partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, drove up in their SUV, Damond walked toward the car. Harrity, who was at the wheel, said that he was startled by a loud noise just before Damond approached the open driver’s side window and that Noor fired from the passenger seat, striking the woman. Both officers were wearing body cameras, but they were turned off, as were the headlights of their vehicle. The lack of video was widely criticized. As written in the criminal complaint, “There is no evidence that, in that short time frame, Officer Noor encountered, appreciated, investigated, or confirmed a threat that justified the decision to use deadly force. Instead, Officer Noor recklessly and intentionally fired his handgun from the passenger seat, a location at which he would have been less able than Officer Harrity to see and hear events on the other side of the squad car.” Noor has been on paid leave since the shooting.
Be the first to comment