MINNEAPOLIS _ In her first public comments five days after a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed Justine Damond, Chief Janee Harteau said the department will work on regaining the public's trust, acknowledging that "Justine didn't have to die."
Repeating the phrase more than once during a Thursday afternoon news conference, Harteau said the department will take a close look at its body camera policies, and acknowledged that the officers' body cameras should have been on during the shooting.
"Justine didn't have to die, based on the publicly released information from the BCA, this should not have happened," Harteau said. "On our squad cars you will find the words 'To protect with courage and serve with compassion.' This did not happen."
The brief but wide-ranging news conference spanned Officer Mohamed Noor's training to the length of the officers' response time to the call Damond made before she was shot. Harteau cautioned that the actions of Noor, the officer who killed Damond, do not reflect the entire department. She said she spoke with Damond's fiance, Don Damond, who told her he was afraid others would be afraid to call 911.
"Although disheartening, I understand the fear," Harteau said. "We will work toward regaining trust; even in Justine's fiance's grief, we had a positive conversation on how we can move forward."
The officer who shot Damond, Noor, has refused to speak with the BCA, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Harteau said she wishes he would, because "there are questions that need to be answered and he is the only one that has those answers."
Harteau said the officers should turn on their body cameras before any call because they don't know what will happen on any call. She also defended Noor's training, saying he "absolutely" performed well.
"I have been told by his training officers there was no indication there would be any issues," she said. "He did well in his training; his training was not extended."
Noor's partner that night, Matthew Harrity, told investigators that as he was driving in an alley he was startled by a loud sound near their squad, according to a BCA report released late Tuesday.
Damond approached the driver's side window of the squad car "immediately afterward," according to the BCA. Noor shot from the passenger seat, across his partner and through the window, striking Damond in the abdomen. She died at the scene 20 minutes later.
The BCA has declined to provide any additional information into the investigation. A spokesman for the Hennepin County attorney's office said Thursday that the BCA has not provided a timeline for when the investigation will be completed.
Harteau's comments were the first since the shooting, after police spokespersons said she was out of state on a personal trip. Harteau said she was backpacking in remote mountains with poor cellphone reception, but receiving briefings.
