MINNEAPOLIS _ A jury has been seated in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, with opening arguments scheduled to begin Tuesday.
After one week, attorneys in the case completed selection Monday morning. The jury consists of 12 men and four women. Six are people of color, four of them immigrants. One woman emigrated from Pakistan, one man emigrated from Ethiopia and two men moved to the United States from the Philippines. Four of the jurors are alternates.
No one in the pool said they followed news of officer-involved shootings, including the 2016 fatal shooting of Philando Castile by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez.
Several of them own shotguns or handguns, the defense has said. Some of them said they had heard news of the case when it occurred; none reported following it closely.
Noor, 33, is on trial for fatally shooting Justine Ruszczyk Damond, 40, on July 15, 2017, after responding to her 911 call about a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her south Minneapolis home.
The jurors are:
_ A male overnight manager at a high-end grocery store.
_ A male civil engineer who works on track designs for light rails, streetcars and freight trains. He said he only knew "the basics" of the case from TV news.
_ A man who works as a carpenter and writes about his life and other topics.
_ A female obstetrician-gynecologist who described herself as a person of color, and who said she has been second-guessed as a doctor and mistaken as a nurse or lab technician because of other people's implicit bias. "Oh, it's this case," she said of her first reaction to arriving in court last week for jury duty.
_ A man who emigrated from the Philippines with his family. He works as a host at a restaurant.
_ A man who moved to the United States from Ethiopia. He works in the medical field. "I didn't think much of anything," he said of his reaction to arriving to court last week for jury selection and seeing Noor.
_ A man who had once served on a jury in a civil trial.
_ A male software developer who was brought in Friday to replace a female college student. He said he recognized Noor's name but hadn't heard about the case.
_ A male Minneapolis firefighter. He said he knew three first responders on the prosecution's witness list through his work.
_ A man who emigrated from the Philippines as a child and works as an immigration services officer for the Department of Homeland Security.
_ A man who works in the financial investment industry.
_ A man who previously served in the U.S. Navy "hunting submarines" from helicopters. He has a permit to carry.
_ A woman with experience as a business analyst who is looking for work. She was brought in Friday afternoon to replace someone who was dismissed. She grew emotional and rocked back and forth in her chair Friday when asked how she would handle graphic video of Damond dying at the scene. "Just the weight of it all," she said, wiping away a tear with her hand. "It's just very tragic _ sorry." The judge asked her to consider whether she could handle such evidence were she selected as a juror.
_ A man who leads groups for people working on mental health issues and substance abuse recovery.
_ A woman who emigrated from Pakistan several years ago and said she had "never heard" of the Noor case.
_ A woman who is retired from Wells Fargo.
Noor has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder with intent, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His trial is expected to last three to four weeks. It began April 1 with jury selection.
