Mohamed Noor was on the force because he was a Somali Muslim. He was in way over his head. The story he has concocted to explain his killing of Justine Damond is already unraveling.
“Family of US cop Mohamed Noor say officer mistakenly shot Justine Damond,” by Sarah Blake, Daily Telegraph, July 20, 2017 (thanks to the Geller Report):
Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor who fatally shot Ms Damond, 40, will be compelled to give a statement to his department as part of an internal investigation.
Officer Noor hasn’t spoken with state investigators and doesn’t have to.
Howevever, the police department’s internal affairs unit can compel him to give a statement as part of its own investigation, and fire him if he refuses, said Minneapolis defense lawyer Joe Friedberg, who isn’t involved in the case.
That statement cannot be used against him in any criminal investigation.
Mr Noor hasn’t provided his explanation for what happened on Saturday when he fired a shot from the passenger seat of a squad car, past his partner in the driver’s seat and killed Ms Damond who was standing outside the vehicle.
According to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, his partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, told investigators he was driving in the alley with all of the vehicle’s lights off when he was startled by a loud noise….
A lawyer for cop Matthew Harrity says ‘it’s certainly reasonable’ that his client and his partner thought they were being ambushed when Justine Damond was shot.
Fred Bruno, Mr Harrity’s lawyer, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that his client and Mohamed Noor, who shot Damond, may have been spooked by a “loud noise” before the Australian woman approached the police car.
“It’s certainly reasonable to assume that any police officer would be concerned about a possible ambush under these circumstances,” Mr Bruno said. “It was only a few weeks ago when a female NYPD cop and mother of twins was executed in her car in a very similar scenario.”
Mr Bruno was referring to New York City police officer Miosotis Familia, 48, who was killed earlier this month by a mentally ill man as she sat in her police car.
Noor’s lawyer, Thomas Plunkett, did not immediately respond to a request for comment….
The declaration came as a preliminary investigation by Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension revealed Noor and his fellow officer had been startled by a loud noise in the seconds before she approached their car and was shot.
Mr Harrity, 26, who was driving the Minneapolis police car responding to Damond’s 911 call for help late Saturday night, described the last moments of Damond’s life to investigators.
He said the loud noise — which was possibly fireworks, according to police radio — came just as Damond walked to the squad car he was driving, around the corner from her home.
Officer Noor, 31, fired through the door of the car, and killed Ms Damond, 40, with a single gunshot to the abdomen.
Harrity was reportedly stunned when his partner opened fire.
Friends of Noor’s told the Daily Mail that he was “startled” by Damond when he opened fire.
His version of events, told by friends on the basis of anonymity, lined up with what Harrity told investigators.
However he has been criticised for not providing a statement to investigators.
News Corp spoke to half a dozen residents who were in their houses around the crime scene on Saturday night and none had heard the gunshot or any other loud noises that sounded like fireworks. One resident a block from the scene, waiter Tom McConnell, said however it was common during the current summer holidays for fireworks left over from the recent July 4 celebrations to be set off on weekend nights….