Black Ex-Minneapolis Policeman Convicted In Killing Woman Who Called 911 Released From Prison
Mohamed Noor, a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home, was reportedly released from prison on parole on Monday (June 27).
According to the Associated Press, the development comes months after the 36-year-old’s conviction was overturned and he was resentenced on a lesser charge.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections website states Noor, a Somali-American, was placed under the supervision of Hennepin County Community Corrections. He was freed 18 days shy of the fifth anniversary of the July 15, 2017, fatal shooting of Justin Ruszczyk Damond, a U.S.-Australian citizen who was engaged to be married.
Nicholas Kimball, a corrections department spokesperson, confirmed to the AP that Noor was released Monday morning. He also added that Noor was held in North Dakota for most of his sentence and had no disciplinary issues in prison.
On the evening of July 15, 2017, Rusczcyk called the police and reported a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her Minneapolis home. Noor testified in 2019 that he and his partner were driving through an alley when they heard a loud bang on the car that made them fear for their lives. He said a woman walked up to the driver’s side window and raised her arm. He fired a shot from the passenger side, believing it was a threat.
Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 12 ½ years, but the Minnesota Supreme Court tossed the conviction out in 2021 and resentenced to four years and nine months for the manslaughter, receiving credit for the 908 days he had already served.
According to The New York Times, Rusczcyk's fiancé, Don Damond, slammed the state Supreme Court’s initial decision to reverse Noor’s conviction, saying in a statement via Zoom, “The truth is Justine should be alive. No amount of justification, embellishment, cover-up, dishonesty or politics will ever change that truth.”
Damond also said to Noor, “I have no doubt she would have forgiven you, Mohamed, for your inability to manage your own emotions that night, which resulted in you pulling that trigger. Justine was and is still my greatest teacher. Given her example, I want you to know that I forgive you, Mohamed. All I ask is that you use this experience to do good for other people.”
CBS Minnesota reports that in court filings made available on Sept. 15, the state’s supreme court ruled to reverse the murder conviction of the former Minneapolis police officer and sent the case to district court for a second-degree manslaughter conviction.
The ruling claimed the mental state necessary for depraved-mind murder “is a generalized indifference to human life” that can’t exist when the defendant’s actions are “directed with particularity at the person who is killed.”
