Title : 'No basis' for Minneapolis cop to fatally shoot Justine Damond Ruszczyk, court hears
link : 'No basis' for Minneapolis cop to fatally shoot Justine Damond Ruszczyk, court hears
'No basis' for Minneapolis cop to fatally shoot Justine Damond Ruszczyk, court hears
A prosecutor has criticised a former Minneapolis police officer for his decision to shoot unarmed Australian woman Justine Damond Ruszczyk who approached his squad car, suggesting he had "no basis" to believe she had a weapon when he could not see her hands.
Key points:
- The jury is expected to begin deliberations in the coming days and will be sequestered
- Mr Noor's lawyers have argued he was justified using deadly force to protect himself and his partner from a perceived threat
- His testimony is the first time he has spoken about the fatal 2017 shooting of Ms Damond Ruszczyk
Mohamed Noor was pressed by prosecutor Amy Sweasy to explain why he did not choose another option before he shot Ms Damond Ruszczyk in July 2017, minutes after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her house.
Ms Sweasy asked Mr Noor why he could not have told Ms Damond Ruszczyk to step back, tell his partner to drive, or tell his partner to get down.
"I had to make a split-second decision," Mr Noor testified.
He said he felt he had no other choice but to shoot under the circumstances, after he heard a bang on the driver's side of the squad car, saw his partner look afraid and try to pull out his gun, and then saw a woman at the driver's side window, raising her arm.
Mr Noor's testimony came near the end of the fourth week in his trial on murder and manslaughter charges over the killing of Ms Damond Ruszczyk, a 40-year-old dual citizen of Australia and the US.
The defence closed its case on Friday (local time).
The prosecution is expected to call at least one rebuttal witness on Monday before closing arguments, and the judge told jurors to expect to begin deliberations soon after.
They will be sequestered when they are sent from the court to consider their verdicts.
'He had to react immediately'
Mr Noor, 33, was fired after being charged.
His lawyers have argued that he was justified in using deadly force to protect himself and partner Matthew Harrity from a perceived threat.
Prosecutors have argued there was no reasonable threat, and questioned whether the supposed bang on the squad car was invented.
Ms Sweasy reminded Mr Noor of testimony on Thursday in which he said reacting too late to a threat meant officers could die.
"It's also true if you don't do your job correctly, someone else could get killed," Ms Sweasy said.
Mr Noor's lawyer, Thomas Plunkett, asked his client what would have happened if the person approaching the squad car had been armed.
"My partner would have been killed," Mr Noor answered.
Mr Noor's testimony resumed on Friday, a day after he began publicly talking about the night of Ms Damond Ruszczyk's death for the first time.
He had refused to talk to investigators since the shooting.
Mr Noor described his training in various police skills including "counter-ambush" that included scenarios such as two officers in a squad car, doing routine tasks, and an instructor yelling "threat".
The officers had to make a quick decision about whether to shoot, Mr Noor said.
Emanuel Kapelsohn, a use-of-force expert, testified for the defence that he felt Mr Noor had used reasonable force, given the totality of the circumstances.
"He had to react immediately," Mr Kapelsohn said.
Two other use-of-force experts testified for the prosecution earlier, and said they felt Mr Noor did not act reasonably.
Discrepancies in defence witness statement questioned
The defence also called a woman who lives across the alley from where Ms Damond Ruszczyk died.
Michelle LeBlanc said she was lying in bed that night when she heard sounds.
Ms LeBlanc described them as "boom, boom, boom" and said the first noise was loud and startled her. She said the second noise was a gunshot.
Prosecutor Patrick Lofton sought to raise questions about Ms LeBlanc's testimony, referring to past statements she gave to investigators and pointing out discrepancies.
The death of Ms Damond Ruszczyk, a life coach who was engaged to be married a month after the shooting, sparked outrage in both the US and Australia, cost Minneapolis' police chief her job and contributed to the electoral defeat of the city's mayor a few months later.
Neither officer had a body camera running when Ms Damond Ruszczyk was shot, something Mr Harrity blamed on what he called a vague policy that did not require it.
The department toughened the policy after Ms Damond Ruszczyk's death to require that the cameras be turned on when responding to a call.
ABC/AP
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