Killer officer to claim self defence in Justine Damond shooting trial

Mohamed Noor, the Minneapolis police officer who killed Australian Justine Ruszczyk Damond, is set to plead not guilty to murder and manslaughter over her shooting.

Instead, he will claim self defence and reasonable force as defences, according to reports of documents filed by his attorney on Wednesday in answer to the charges filed in March. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune said there was no further detail in the document on how these defences would be used.

Noor was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter over the shooting of Damond in July 2017. The Aussie woman was killed just weeks before she was due to marry her American partner Dan Damond and had already adopted his surname.

Read more: Transcript of 911 call reveals why Justine Damond called for help

She had called police after hearing what she feared with a sexual assault taking place outside her house in Minneapolis, but was shot by Noor after she approached the police car in which he and partner Matthew Harrity were sat. Harrity has already told investigators that he’d been scared by a noise from outside the car and had already drawn his own gun from its holster when Noor, in the passenger seat, shot across him, hitting Damond in the abdomen.

Read more: US officer finally charged over Aussie Justine Damond’s shooting death

She died at the scene and Noor declined to cooperate with investigators looking into the shooting. The charges against Noor took nine months to bring. The Star-Tribune reports that he is due back in court on May 8, having been freed on US$500,000 bail.

In the meantime, the newspaper has compiled an interesting Q&A on the case here that addresses in detail much of the confusion surrounding the charges.

Can you see how self-defence and reasonable force could be argued in such a case?