MINNEAPOLIS _ A Hennepin County courtroom watched body camera video of a pair of Minneapolis police officers' futile efforts to save a dying Justine Ruszczyk Damond on Thursday as the onetime partner of ex-officer Mohamed Noor took the stand as a key witness in Noor's ongoing murder trial.
Officer Matthew Harrity testified Thursday that he was on high alert as he drove down the south Minneapolis alley in response to her 911 call about a possible sexual assault behind her home shortly before the deadly encounter. Before the video was played, Harrity testified that he had stopped the squad car at the mouth of the alley to clear the 911 call when he saw a bicyclist approaching. He said he was waiting for the cyclist to pass them before pulling into the street when a figure appeared at his open driver's side window.
Harrity said he realized something was nearby as he scanned back and forth to keep tabs on the bicyclist.
"I had some weird feeling to my left side that I had to look over," he said. "A silhouette of something. It was still at the time."
Harrity testified that he heard something strike the squad car and a "murmur."
"That's when I started reaching for my firearm," he said, adding that he was able to unholster it and held it next to his rib cage pointing down. "It seems like it's taking forever ..." but was "just going as fast as possible" at the same time.
He said that moment lasted "milliseconds." He testified that he said, "Oh (expletive)," or, "Oh Jesus," and feared it was a potential ambush.
In an instant, Harrity described hearing a "very mellow pop" and saw a "flash." He wiggled his limbs to see if he had been shot, then looked over to see Noor holding his hand up. Although his vision was affected by the pop and a squad computer lighting, he believed he saw Noor holding a firearm. Harrity said Noor's hand was closer to Noor's body, and was not outstretched in front of Harrity.
Harrity's body camera video was played in court, showing Damond taking deep gasps of air and groaning as she struggled for several minutes after being shot in the lower left abdomen.
Don Damond, her fiance, and Justine's brother and sister-in-law left the trial courtroom before the video was played, while her father and stepmother remained, both visibly upset at times. Harrity watched the video from the witness stand with a hand held to his face, but did not appear to display any obvious reactions. Jurors sat at attention, with one woman holding a hand to her nose and mouth and shaking her head at times.
Harrity activated his body camera after the shot was fired. The video starts with him standing outside of the squad with a view of the sidewalk and driveway. No one is immediately visible in the video.
"You're OK," Harrity says to Noor, who is off screen. "Calm down. Turn your camera on."
"Stay breathing, stay breathing, stay breathing," Harrity says to Damond. "Keep breathing."
Harrity performs CPR on Damond.
"Noor, breathe," he says. "Just breathe."
"Stay with me, ma'am," Harrity says as Damond gasps for air.
Noor shifts around on his feet and then kneels down next to Damond and performs CPR while Harrity attempts to open a plastic package containing a medical supply.
"You're going a little too fast," Harrity says to Noor, who is performing CPR. "You're going a little too fast."
"Where's the ambulance?" Noor asks as Damond continues to take deep, labored breaths.
"Just keep doing it, Noor," Harrity says as he struggles with the plastic packaging. "Do not stop. Do not stop."
"You can do it," Harrity says, pleading with Damond to "stay with us, ma'am."
Another officer arrives, and Harrity tells someone that the shots were "our shots."
Noor is seen kneeling over Damond, but has stopped CPR.
"Keep going," Harrity says. "Keep going. Keep doing it, Noor." At some point, Harrity says, "She keeps coming back."
About seven minutes into the video, another person takes over CPR from Noor. It's unclear from the courtroom gallery view of the video how Damond is doing, and whether she is breathing.
Harrity's view of the scene changes as he moves away from the driveway to address his supervisor, Sgt. Shannon Barnette.
"She just came outta nowhere," Harrity said of Damond. "On the side of the thing and we both got spooked. I had my gun out. I didn't fire. And then Noor pulled out and fired."
The video shows Harrity ultimately walking up to a squad car where Barnette has directed him to sit with officer Jesse Lopez.
"You're not a (expletive) prisoner," Lopez says to Harrity while Harrity is trying to get into the squad.
Lopez directs Harrity to turn off his body camera.
During questioning, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Amy Sweasy asked Harrity if he considered whether the figure at his window was the woman Damond had reported in her 911 call.
"No, because I was thinking of my safety first," he said. "At the time, yes, I was going to make sure I go home safely at the end of the night."
Earlier Thursday, Harrity testified that he was on high alert as he drove down the south Minneapolis alley before the shooting.
"For me, every call I consider it a threat, until it's not a threat at all," Harrity testified. "I know it's kind of a scary way of thinking."
He added: "I just want to go home to my family."
On the night of Damond's death, the officers had just returned from dinner when they self-assigned themselves to Damond's 911 call, which was labeled as "unknown trouble."
Harrity testified that the officers left 5th Precinct headquarters, driving down Nicollet Avenue to the address listed on the call; it took about 9 minutes and 40 seconds, according to their squad's GPS.
Initially, nothing about the call alarmed him, Harrity testified. As a child growing up in south Minneapolis, he was often outside yelling and screaming at all times of the night, he said.
"To me, it felt like a call we were on before and we knew what we were gonna do," he said.
But, as he eased the police SUV into the alley between Washburn and Xerxes avenues S., Harrity said he started going through his mental checklist to "weigh all of the scenarios and weigh all the information."
"You assume that every call begins with a threat," he said.
After turning off the squad's headlights and dimming its on-board computer, Harrity said that he flashed a spotlight at certain "nooks and crannies" for possible signs of trouble. He also unlatched a strap on his holster, but didn't immediately draw his gun, Harrity testified.
Harrity said that he was so focused on driving and scanning the alley that he didn't notice what his partner was doing.
"Did you hear him say anything, at anytime while you were checking the alley," Sweasy asked, referring to Noor.
"Not that I can recall," Harrity said.
She later asked why the officers seemed to be taking this particular call more seriously than a welfare check call they had responded to in the same area earlier that night.
Harrity said that the vague nature of Damond's call _ about a woman who may or may not have been in the process of being sexually assaulted _ immediately heightened his alertness.
"Were you expecting to encounter people when you were in that alley," Sweasy asked.
"I was expecting anything," Harrity said.
About halfway down the alley, Harrity said he stopped the vehicle when he heard a muffled sound that seemed like a dog barking or "whining" from inside one of the houses.
Prior prosecution witnesses have testified that they never heard a dog barking that night.
As he spoke, Noor, dressed in a dark suit and pink shirt, watched stoically from the defense table, only occasionally turning to whisper something into an attorney's ear.
A graduate of Metropolitan State University, Harrity first joined the department in 2016, after briefly working as a correctional officer and with the Boys & Girls Club.
Noor has repeatedly declined to speak to BCA investigators or a grand jury about the events of that night.
But, the prosecution has gone to some lengths to highlight his former partner's apparent hesitancy to cooperate with their case. Sweasy said that Harrity was interviewed by the BCA on July 18, 2017 _ three days after the shooting _ and appeared before the grand jury the following February, after being subpoenaed. She pointed out that he also declined to participate in trial preparation with the state, although he did come in to the county attorney's office on three separate occasions _ to read his BCA statement and to watch footage from his and Noor's body cameras.
Each time, Harrity was accompanied by his attorney, Fred Bruno, who was also present at Thursday's hearing.
Before the hearing, the defense asked Judge Kathryn Quaintance to bar prosecutors from cross-examining Harrity "unless and until he is determined to be a hostile witness."
Quaintance said that that was always the standard.
