Former Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor was convicted of manslaughter after shooting and killing 40-year-old Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home.
The shooting happened late on July 15, 2017, in the Fulton neighborhood of Minneapolis. Damond, an Australian-American woman also known as Justine Ruszczyk, called 911 after hearing what she believed might be a sexual assault in the alley behind her home.
According to MPR News, about 22 minutes after Damond called 911, she was dead, shot by then-Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor.
Noor and his partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, responded to the call in a squad car. Harrity was driving, and Noor was in the passenger seat. Damond approached the driver’s side of the squad car. Noor fired across Harrity from the passenger seat, striking Damond.
Damond was unarmed. Neither officer had activated a body camera before the shooting, and the squad car camera also did not capture the shooting. That lack of video became a major issue in public criticism of the Minneapolis Police Department’s response.
Noor later claimed he believed there was a threat and that he was reacting to protect his partner. Prosecutors argued that Damond posed no threat, that Noor fired without properly identifying a target, and that the shooting was unreasonable and unjustified.
Noor was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. His trial drew international attention, partly because Damond was originally from Australia and was weeks away from getting married when she was killed.
On April 30, 2019, a jury found Noor guilty of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Jurors acquitted him of intentional second-degree murder.
On June 7, 2019, Noor was sentenced to 12½ years in prison. At the time, the conviction was widely described as historic because Noor was the first Minnesota police officer known to have been convicted of murder for an on-duty killing.
The case did not end there. Noor appealed, and on September 15, 2021, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed his third-degree murder conviction. The court ruled that the third-degree murder statute did not fit conduct directed at a specific person, but it left the second-degree manslaughter conviction in place.
After the murder conviction was vacated, Noor was resentenced. On October 21, 2021, CBS Minnesota reported that Judge Kathryn Quaintance sentenced Noor to 57 months in prison for second-degree manslaughter, with credit for time already served.
Noor was released from prison on June 27, 2022. Sahan Journal, in partnership with the Star Tribune, reported that he was placed on court-ordered supervision until January 24, 2024, when his sentence ended.
Damond’s family also filed a civil lawsuit against Minneapolis. The city agreed to a $20 million settlement, which was reported as a record police-related settlement for Minneapolis at the time.
The case remains one of the most prominent examples of an on-duty police killing leading to a criminal conviction. But after the murder count was overturned, the final conviction was manslaughter, and Noor ultimately served far less than the original 12½-year sentence.
Justine Damond called 911 because she thought someone else might be in danger. The officer who arrived to investigate fired from inside the squad car and killed her instead.
