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By Associated press
MINNEAPOLIS – The partner of a Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible crime said Thursday that he had heard a thump on the car from his team just before the shooting and feared a possible ambush.
The testimony of officer Matthew Harrity echoed a key complaint by Mohamed Noor's lawyers, who had fired a single shot at Justine Ruszczyk Damond as she approached the officers police car. July 15, 2017.
Damond had made two 911 calls that night to report a possible sexual assault in the driveway behind her house. Struck in the abdomen, the 40-year-old American and Australian double citizen quickly bled to death during an incident that sparked anger and disbelief in both countries.
Prosecutors questioned the defense's story that a shock to the police car had occurred, claiming that the investigators had found no forensic evidence that Damond had been hit. They also questioned the timing of the claim, claiming that Harrity had mentioned it for the first time several days after the shooting and after the investigators had raised this possibility.
Noor has never spoken to the investigators and it is unclear when he will testify.
On Thursday, Harrity described a tense scene, with Noor and him coming down the dark alley, headlights off, using a searchlight to look for any trace of a struggling woman. Harrity, who was driving, said that at one point he had removed his safety case, but when they reached the end of the aisle without finding anything, he thought he had replaced it.
Harrity – dressed in his uniform and appearing composed on the stand – testified that he had then had a "strange feeling" to his left but could not understand what it was about.
"At that moment, I hear something hit the car and I also hear a kind of whisper," he said. He immediately pulled out his gun and held it to his ribs pointing down, he said.
Attorney Amy Sweasy asked Harrity when he was still taking out his gun when he was surprised. He said it depends.
"In this situation, with the thud and be surprised, I went straight to," It could be an ambush, "replied Harrity. He added, "My first thought is that I am going to make sure that anything is not a threat to me."
Harrity said that while trying to figure out what was going on, he had heard a sound and glanced to see that Noor had fired at him and out the window on the driver's side.
At that time, neither officer had his body camera running, which Harrity blamed on what he called a vague policy that did not require anything. The two men then lit them and a game of Harrity was played on Thursday.
It shows the efforts of the two men to save Damond with CP. We hear the laborious breathing of Damond. Harrity says, "Stay with me, stay with me, stay breathing." We also intend to address her partner: "Noor, breathe, just breathe."
At one point, while Harrity is moving away to look for medical supplies, he advises Noor to slow down the CPR and assures Noor that an ambulance is coming.
A medical examiner said earlier that Damond had been hit in a key artery and lost so much blood so quickly that even faster medical care might not have saved her.
Damond was white. Noor, 33, is a Somali American whose Minneapolis executives celebrated the hiring two years before the shooting, sign of a diversification of police forces in a city populated by Somali immigrants .
Most of the first cases of the prosecution focused on the treatment of the crime scene by the police and agents of the Office of the State's Criminal Apprehensions, including possible errors. They also pointed out that the police turned on and off their body camera several times after the shooting.
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