MINNEAPOLIS _ Differing narratives of the night Mohamed Noor fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond punctuated opening statements in the former police officer's murder trial Tuesday, with prosecutors describing a cop who rashly fired his weapon at a civilian in her pajamas, while the defense contended that fear of an ambush in a dark alley led to "a perfect storm with tragic consequences."
Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Patrick Lofton described in detail the night in question when, after calling 911 a second time to report a possible sexual assault behind her south Minneapolis home, Damond got on the phone with her fiance. When she saw a police SUV creeping down the alley, she told him, "OK, the police are here," before hanging up.
"Those were the last words that Justine Ruszczyk ever said to her fiance, Don Damond," Lofton told the jury as a smiling photo of the yoga instructor appeared on two large TVs in the courtroom. Twenty-four seconds later, she lay dying from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Damond went outside to flag down the police cruiser _ with Noor in the passenger seat and his former partner Matthew Harrity behind the wheel. Prosecutors believe that she approached the SUV, but did not slap it as has been widely reported, attributing the discrepancy to an offhand comment made at the scene later by a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator.
Lofton said that ballistics testing and an autopsy found that the 5-foot-7 Damond was shot in her lower-left abdomen, suggesting that the bullet may have traveled through the cruiser's door. "He fired that shot without saying a word," Lofton said of Noor.
Defense attorney Peter Wold focused heavily on Noor's background as a Somali immigrant and the fear of "ambush" attacks on police during his opening statements, saying that his client's actions were justified despite the fact that Damond was innocent and not a threat.
"That fear was not an unjustified paranoia," Wold said regarding police ambushes.
Wold said Noor and Harrity responded to Damond's call but were not given any information about who had placed the call, or, that the caller wanted to be notified by officers when they arrived at the scene.
They "crept" down the alley with the headlights off but Harrity shining a spotlight in the alley. Noor also kept watch from his place in the passenger seat." The only sound, Wold said, was a dog whining. No one appeared outside behind Damond's house in the middle of the block, the origin of the 911 call.
"No signs of anything there," Wold said. "Nothing. Not a homeowner ... not a victim waving for help ... not a dog or a cat ... not a sound at all. Nothing."
The officers crept down to the end of the alley and parked to clear the call. "We are safe," Wold said Noor logged into the call record. "We are safe."
They planned to leave the scene and respond to a "priority one" call involving another officer in need of assistance. But a teenage boy passing in front of their squad on a bicycle forced them to wait.
Wold said that's when they heard a "bang" on the back of their squad. Wold reenacted the moment by slamming his fist loudly on the defense attorney's table in court.
Harrity looked back from his place in the driver's seat and jumped.
"Oh Jesus!" Harrity yelled, Wold recounted.
Harrity grabbed for his gun, Wold said. Noor had an obstructed view from the passenger's seat because of a screen in the squad car.
"That's what Mo Noor sees in those split seconds," Wold said, using a nickname for Noor. "Harrity appeared to be in terror."
Noor then saw a figure in Harrity's window raising a right arm, Wold said. Thinking the two were in "apparent and imminent danger," Noor fired his weapon.
"It was a perfect storm with tragic consequences," Wold said. "It was a classic ambush scenario and a set-up."
Wold said both Noor and Harrity feared it was an ambush, in part due to the boy, then 16, on the bike who had traveled in front of their squad. Prosecutors have said the boy recorded the aftermath of the shooting on his cellphone and will testify at trial.
After the shooting, both officers got out, activated their body-worn cameras, and took turns performing CPR on Damond, who was "cradling" her wound, until paramedics arrived, Lofton said. Damond was declared dead at the scene.
After hearing all of the evidence _ including ballistics, DNA, and fingerprint and blood splatter analysis _ in the case, Lofton said he was convinced that the jury would find that Noor "was not justified in shooting a barefoot woman in her pajamas and who had called 911."
A jury of 12 men and four women, including alternates, was seated Monday in the trial. Six of them appear to be people of color, including four immigrants.
In his opening remarks, Lofton described what he termed missteps in the early handling of the case, saying that at several points in their investigation, BCA agents failed to test for gunshot residue inside the SUV or to interview witnesses, including a teenage bicyclist who recorded the shooting's aftermath on his cellphone.
That cellphone footage, Lofton said, showed that neither Noor or Harrity handcuffed Damond, nor did they look around for a weapon, which is standard procedure in most police shootings involving people who are suspected of being armed.
The narrative that Damond may have slapped the SUV apparently originated from a BCA agent, who was at the scene that night and speculated to investigator that the officers must've been startled by a loud noise.
"They made some assumptions and they tried to fill in gaps with things that they did not understand" Lofton said of the BCA.
Three days later, Harrity, who hadn't previously mentioned a loud noise, said in an interview at his attorney's home that he had heard a noise before the shooting, according to Lofton. Harrity, who appeared at least twice before a grand jury investigating the case, told investigators that he saw the silhouette of a man or a woman suddenly flash at his window, and then he heard "pop" and saw a "flash," Lofton said.
"She just came out of nowhere on the side of us and we both got spooked," Lofton said, quoting a transcript of an interview with Harrity, who said that he immediately leapt out to help the woman.
"He's able to open the driver's side door without touching her," Lofton said.
"There is no forensic evidence that Ms. Ruszczyk ever touched the car," Lofton told jurors.
His comments echoed those made by his boss, county attorney Mike Freeman, who was recorded at a gathering saying that BCA investigators hadn't "done their job." He later apologized for the remarks.
There was some initial confusion at the scene, Lofton said: Police didn't immediately make the connection that Damond had been shot. A police supervisor approached Noor at the scene to get his account of what happened, but because she didn't turn her body camera on until after the interview, the only footage recorded was of Noor demonstrating how he'd raised his gun and fired, Lofton said. No audio was available.
"We'll never know what he said there," Lofton said.
In his statements, Wold began talking about the shootings of police in other parts of the country, prompting Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Peter Lofton to object. The judge sustained the objection.
"Mr. Wold," said Quaintance, who was visibly irritated and spoke with a raised voice. "Talk about the evidence, and what the evidence will show."
"Sometimes your job has negative and unattended consequences," Wold said at the close of his approximately 45-minute opening statements.
Wold spent about 10 minutes discussing the shooting and much of the time leading up to that recounting how a young Noor and his family fled Somalia for a refugee camp in Kenya. They immigrated to the United States in 1993, moving to Chicago and then south Minneapolis, where Noor went to middle and high school. He attended community college and graduated from Augsburg University, and worked in the hotel and health care industries before becoming a Minneapolis officer in 2015.
Noor's "remarkable journey" and police training gives important context to understanding his reaction the night of the shooting, the defense said.
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.
Defense attorneys have not said whether Noor will testify on his own behalf.
