Ex-officer to serve 2 more years in fatal shooting
Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, whose murder conviction was overturned last month in the 2017 fatal shooting of an unarmed woman, was resentenced Thursday morning on a lesser charge.
Noor, 36, would serve 57 months on second-degree manslaughter, a judge ruled Thursday. He already has served more than 29 months, which means he faces about two years and four months in jail.
Noor shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, 40, in July 2017 when she approached Noor’s police car after calling 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her Minneapolis home.
Noor was initially convicted of thirddegree murder and manslaughter. He was sentenced to 121⁄2 years on the murder count. But the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed his murder conviction last month, arguing it didn’t fit the crime.
The language for Minnesota’s thirddegree murder notes that the action must be “eminently dangerous to others.” In Noor’s case, the lower court uniquely interpreted the charge to apply to a fatal act directed at a single victim, said Sarah Davis, executive director of the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis.
So in September, the Supreme Court threw out the third-degree murder conviction, sending his case back to a lower court for sentencing on the manslaughter count.
On Thursday, Noor received the maximum sentence in state sentencing guidelines for people facing a seconddegree manslaughter charge with no prior criminal history.
Thursday’s sentencing began with statements from Ruszczyk Damond’s family, including her sister-in-law, Katarina Ruszczyk, who said the family had trusted the legal process to ensure justice. “I feel tired. I feel betrayed,” she said. “And I feel angry at how this process has ended.”
She called for systemic changes within the Minneapolis Police Department to ensure accountability for police officers.
Jason Ruszczyk, Justine’s brother, said memories of the first trial are often the last thing he thinks of when he goes to sleep at night.
“I wish for my sister’s smile and her warm hugs to be present in my life until we grow old,” he said.
Don Damond, who was engaged to Justine, criticized the Minnesota Supreme Court decision to overturn Noor’s initial sentence, saying that it “doesn’t diminish the truth which was uncovered during the trial.”
But he said he would forgive Noor, saying his fiancee was a “unifier” who stood for justice.
At his 2019 trial, Noor said he feared for his life after hearing a loud bang on his police car as he and his partner drove through an alley. After seeing a woman raise her arm near her partner’s window, Noor said he fired a shot to stop what he perceived to be a threat.
After he was charged, Noor was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau later resigned.
Days after Noor was first convicted, Minneapolis agreed to pay $20 million to Damond’s family.