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| Trial Begins for ex-U.S. Cop who Fatally Shot Australian Woman | |||
| 2019-04-02 | |||
| [AnNahar] Jury selection began Monday in the murder trial of a former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman in 2017, provoking outrage in the United States and in the victim's home country. Police say Mohammed Noor shot Justine Damond in Minneapolis in July 2017 while in the passenger seat of his police car. She had approached the cruiser after calling police to report a possible rape in the dark alley behind her home. Damond was shot once in the abdomen and died at the scene.
He has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." The murder charges carry sentences of up to 25 years for the second-degree charge and up to 10 years for the third-degree. The prosecution has claimed Noor acted unreasonably -- shooting at someone he did not clearly see, while his partner was in the line of fire. Noor's attorneys have indicated they plan to mount a self-defense argument. Attorney Tom Plunkett has said his client "acted as he has been trained and consistent with established departmental policy." - NOOR'S WORK HISTORY BARRED - Dozens of prospective jurors were given initial instructions Monday and handed questionnaires. Court proceedings ended by late morning and were scheduled to resume Wednesday. The presiding judge, Kathryn Quaintance, has barred prosecutors from presenting evidence of Noor's past work history. That history includes an incident in which Noor allegedly pointed a gun at a motorist during a traffic stop, and occasionally refused to respond to police calls,
Minnesota Public Radio reported that Noor was deemed "asocial and socially introverted" in his pre-employment psychological test, but that there were no signs of disqualifying mental illness. Damond's killing caused international outrage. The 40-year-old Australian had moved to the United States to marry her American fiance, Don Damond, whose name she had already legally adopted, changing from her maiden name Ruszczyk. Her Australian relatives and the country's government demanded an explanation, while protests in Minneapolis led to the resignation of the city's police chief. Across the country, prosecutors have had difficulty securing convictions against officers accused of wrongful shootings that often include racial overtones. Trials have mostly resulted in hung juries or acquittals, which at times have caused civil unrest in American cities. Another Minnesota officer, Jeronimo Yanez, was fired from his job but acquitted after fatally shooting black motorist Philando Castile in 2016. There were several days of protests in Saint Louis, Missouri in 2017, after a judge concluded there was not enough evidence to convict former officer Jason Stockley for shooting Anthony Lamar Smith after a 2011 car chase. In reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... , Jason Van Dyke was convicted of murder for killing black teen Laquan McDonald. The 17-year-old was shot 16 times, with most of those bullets striking him after he fell to the ground.
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| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #14 #6 Besoeker, that's a picture of a Kenyan. |
| Posted by: gorb 2019-04-02 16:01 |
| #13 Ex-US Cop, meaning he should be ex-United States. Like, deported. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2019-04-02 15:32 |
| #12 It's that bell curve thing. combined with... Culture matters. and the $hit happens attitude. Some cultures are especially good at populating the left end of that curve. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-04-02 12:17 |
| #11 On death row: "Bad timing dude. Jussie Smollett got the free pass just before your trial started. Step this way..." Yeah, I know MN doesn't have the death penalty, but it's a nice fantasy... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-04-02 11:57 |
| #10 I know a couple Somali guys in the engineering field and they're pretty good. It's that bell curve thing. Just because most are clumped somewhere in the middle doesn't mean the extremes are uninhabited. People are individuals, not clones like hive insects. They, and their families, left the homelands a couple decades ago though. Culture matters. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-04-02 11:03 |
| #9 Somalians are useless at everything civilised. I know a couple Somali guys in the engineering field and they're pretty good. They, and their families, left the homelands a couple decades ago though. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2019-04-02 10:55 |
| #8 "U.S. cop" my ass! |
| Posted by: Raj 2019-04-02 09:44 |
| #7 This PENIS W/ears shouldn't EVEN be in USA. With his beliefs he should have NOTHING to do with normal Americans . Whom ever is responsible for his hire should be made an accomplice to the murder. IMO |
| Posted by: ranture 2019-04-02 09:25 |
| #6 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-04-02 09:14 |
| #5 Shooting across the driver from the passenger seat in absence of a defined threat doesn't seem at all well-trained. Lucky his partner still has a nose. This is an example of what peeves me about affirmative action - jiggering the selection and standards in order to get the 'correct' numeric results. When the outcome is people who can't do the job, the public suffers. As tw and Mike point out, this guy seems particularly ill-suited to be a cop. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-04-02 09:08 |
| #4 "acted as he has been trained and consistent with established departmental policy." Would seem to not bar his bad work practices and habits. They should be front and center |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-04-02 07:11 |
| #3 The Joe Biden method of 'self defense' - fire blindly at any noise, real or imagined works every time! |
| Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 2019-04-02 06:58 |
| #2 Somalians are useless at everything civilised. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2019-04-02 04:48 |
| #1 ...Reflect upon this for a moment, Good Rantburgers: the city of Minneapolis was bound and determined through Hell or High Water to get a Somali cop on the force...and this guy was the best they could do. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2019-04-02 04:24 |