A former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian yoga instructor who was unarmed and dialed 911 to report a possible sexual assault outside her home has been let go.
On the evening of July 15, 2017, as he and fellow officer Matthew Harrity arrived at Justine Ruszczyk’s home to look into the disturbance, Mohamed Noor, 36, shot and killed the 40-year-old woman.
He was sentenced to 12 and a half years in jail in April 2019 after a jury found him guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter. Last year, the sentence was reduced to four years and nine months after the murder charge was dropped on appeal.
According to online documents from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Noor was released from prison on Monday after spending more than three years behind bars.
After protests in Minnesota demanding police responsibility following the death of Ms. Ruszczyk aroused concern in Australia and the US, the Minnesota police chief ultimately announced his resignation.
Ms. Ruszczyk claimed to have heard a woman screaming in the alley next to her house and dialed 911, the American equivalent of 000.
When the police car pulled up and approached it from behind, she panicked that it was a sexual assault and raced outside.
When they pulled into the alley, Harrity claimed they were startled by a loud noise.
When Ms. Ruszczyk moved toward the driver’s side of the vehicle, Noor, who was seated in the passenger seat, pulled the trigger and killed her there and then.
Noor never gave a testimony, and the police never questioned him. The only information provided by his attorneys was that he might have been afraid of her, despite the fact that she had no weapons.
After bringing a wrongful death claim, Ms. Ruszczyk’s family was awarded a $20 million settlement from the City of Minneapolis.
Don Damond, her fiance, criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for not doing enough to alter the culture of the force following the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin.
Besides the body camera policy, anything else has changed? Can you identify any modifications? He stated in an interview in 2020, “I can’t.