MINNEAPOLIS _ A Minneapolis police sergeant who was among the first supervisors to respond to the deadly shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond testified that Mohamed Noor appeared out of sorts when being questioned about the shooting.
After some prodding from prosecutors, Sgt. Jarrod Kunze recounted how, in the moments after the shooting, he had asked then-officer Mohamed Noor whether he had fired his weapon. Noor responded that he had.
Noor, he testified, appeared "detached" during their brief conversation.
Kunze took the stand Monday afternoon as Noor's murder trial entered its third week. He is charged in the July 15, 2017, shooting of Damond after he and his partner responded to her 911 call of a possible rape behind her home.
Kunze said that on the night in question he was assigned to Car 710 _ along with fellow Sgt. Darah Westermeyer _ a call sign given to on-call investigators who respond to crime scenes citywide. After hearing the "shots fired" call go out over the police scanner, he raced to the location given, from the scene of a stabbing in the neighboring 3rd Precinct.
Once there, he was briefed on what had happened by Sgt. Shannon Barnette, who told him that Noor had "fired his duty weapon." She also pointed him toward where Noor and his former partner, Matthew Harrity, were sitting, in separate squad cars, according to department policy.
Kunze, whose testimony was punctuated with long pauses, said that he went over to the squad car Noor was in, to ask the officer if he needed water. Noor was sitting in the front passenger seat with another officer, whose name Kunze couldn't recall, but who told Kunze that he had arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting and helped provide first aid on Damond.
Kunze ordered the other officers to leave, citing department policy stating that officers involved in a shooting needed to be sequestered, and then turned to ask Noor how he was doing.
"I asked him if he understood that he could contact a Federation representative," Kunze testified, referencing the union that represents the city's roughly 900 rank-and-file officers. "I asked how he felt physically."
Kunze said he later contacted union President Lt. Bob Kroll on Noor's behalf.
When prosecutor Amy Sweasy inquired whether he had asked Noor about the shooting, Kunze initially demurred.
"I may have, I don't recall," he said.
Walking over to the witness stand, Sweasy asked him to read from a transcript of an interview he'd done with a Hennepin County Sheriff's detective last December.
"Does that refresh your memory?" she asked after a few moments. "Did you ask the defendant if he had fired his weapon?"
Kunze said that he had.
"What did he say?" Sweasy asked.
"He said he had," was the response.
During the defense's cross-examination, Kunze said that Noor had "appeared to be slightly detached."
"Were there any questions that he refused to answer, sir?" defense attorney Peter Wold asked.
Kunze said no.
Jurors on Monday heard from another officer who was among the first to arrive on the scene.
Kevin Stoll, a retired lieutenant who was working as the citywide watch commander on the night of Damond's death, told jurors that Noor had "appeared quite upset," even as he sat alone in the squad car, removed from the chaotic scene.
"He appeared pale like he'd lost a lot of color in his face," said Stoll. "He was gray, ashen, pale."
Earlier in the day, the city's police chief testified that officers were expected to have their body cameras activated when responding to incidents with a potential for danger, such as the "unknown trouble" call that preceded Damond's death.
Prosecutors also called two Minneapolis police officers _ partners Nicholas Englund and Kyle Mader _ to the witness stand in an apparent attempt to further their argument that body cameras were suspiciously turned off at the scene despite the expectations of Arradondo.
Sweasy asked Arradondo what the department's body camera policy at the time of the shooting said about officers who responded to such a call.
"At the time of this in 2017, would your expectation have been that the body cameras were on?" Sweasy asked.
"That is correct," he said.
Under the old policy, officers were expected to hit record whenever conducting traffic or suspicious persons stops, or "any sorts of contact where an officer believes that there may be an adversarial situation that develops," he said. Exceptions include officers interviewing the victim of a sexual assault, he said.
Prosecutors have argued that the fact that Noor and Harrity had their cameras turned off offered a glimpse into their state of mind before the shooting, suggesting that they were treating the situation as a routine call.
The policy has been revised since Damond's death; it now requires officers to activate the recording devices in most encounters with the public and when responding to most 911 calls.
But, Noor's attorneys argued, at the time of the shooting, the body camera program was still in its infancy, and many officers were unfamiliar with the department's policy.
Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance had previously instructed attorneys on both sides to steer clear of discussing the department's original policy, worrying that the old policy's "vagueness" might lead to a "mini-trial" over whether officers at the scene followed protocol.
After Arradondo testified, body camera videos from Englund and Mader were played in court showing their drive to the scene.
"The hell's goin' on?" one of the officers asked as they drove with their lights and siren on to the shots-fired call. The officers testified that the police radio call for backup did not note that it was an officer-involved shooting.
Englund's video showed him getting out of the squad and speaking with Barnette, the supervisor at the scene, before he walked away to tape off the area.
"Code four," he said before turning off his body camera. Code four, officers have testified, indicates that a scene is safe.
Mader's body camera video showed the drive, and ended nearly as soon as the two arrived at the scene and Mader opened his car door.
"Thank you, sir, nothing further," Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Patrick Lofton said when Mader's video abruptly ended.
Lofton told jurors during opening statements last week to pay attention to how body cameras were used at the scene, adding that Barnette turned hers off when she spoke with Noor about the shooting.
Prosecutors also called Minneapolis firefighter Sam Eininger, who was the first firefighter at the scene with his two partners. Eininger said he saw an officer performing CPR on Damond, and that he took over using medical equipment and a tool that forced air into her lungs. She had no pulse when he arrived, he testified, causing Damond's father to cover his mouth with his hand.
Sweasy asked if more information about what happened would have helped him at a shooting scene.
"Yes, it would help," he said.
Under questioning by Sweasy, Eininger said he knew the call was for a shooting, but that no officers at the scene told him it was an officer-involved shooting, that the shooter was still at the scene or what type of gun was used.
"That's correct, I did not know," Eininger said.
In his testimony, the chief recounted learning about the shooting from Lt. Kevin Stoll, who was working as the citywide watch commander that night.
After trying and failing to reach then-Chief Janee Harteau _ who was out of the state on vacation _ Arradondo spoke with former Mayor Betsy Hodges, he said. After reaching Harteau on the second try, he briefed her on what had happened, before contacting the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates most police-involved shootings.
By the time he arrived at the scene, paramedics and fire crews had already left, but Damond's body was still in the alley, covered by a white sheet, the chief said.
He also inquired about the officers' conditions and whether they had been injured, saying that: "Anytime an officer has to fire their weapon in a situation like this, there is a potential risk to an officer or officers."
Told that neither officer had been injured, he relayed that information to Harteau.
It wasn't until hours later that he heard that Noor was the shooter. Arradondo said he didn't recognize the officer's name, but he did call Noor in the days after the incident to check on him.
"I know that when officers encounter these types of situations, it can create a lot of trauma," he said.
Arradondo's testimony followed that of Lt. Daniel May, one of Noor's supervisors at the time, who testified last week that the fear of being ambushed on the job was fresh on the officers' minds before the shooting.
May cited the 2016 ambush in Dallas that killed five officers and wounded nine others, and a July 5, 2017, fatal shooting of a New York City officer as cases that had impacted the precinct's thinking about officer safety. He also referenced a 2016 mandate issued by Minneapolis police leaders ordering officers to work in pairs after six Baton Rouge, La., police officers were shot, three of them fatally. May testified that superiors addressed the issue with officers at roll call.
But on Monday, Arradondo told jurors that he didn't issue any departmentwide directives in response to the ambush in New York because he didn't have any credible evidence that Minneapolis officers were being targeted.
"Is today the first time you've heard the word 'ambush' connected to this case?" Sweasy asked the chief.
"That is correct," he responded. He also hadn't heard any discussion that night of a slap or a loud noise that might have prompted the shooting, he testified.
Officers are already trained to be hyper-aware whenever they respond to 911 calls given the inherent dangers of the job, Arradondo testified.
