Posted on 07/20/2017 10:00:11 AM PDT by BenLurkin
A lawyer for the family of an Australian woman shot dead by police in Minneapolis says suggestions officers feared an ambush were "ludicrous".
Robert Bennett said Justine Damond was in her pyjamas when she approached them and "was not a threat to anyone".
Ms Damond was shot after approaching two officers in their car on Saturday after reporting a suspected rape.
Mr Bennett has acted in similar cases, including the high-profile police shooting of Philando Castile in 2016.
Fred Bruno, the lawyer for Matthew Harrity, whose partner killed Ms Damond, 40, had said: "It is reasonable to assume an officer in that situation would be concerned about a possible ambush."
But Mr Bennett told CBS News: "I think that's ludicrous. It's disinformation. It doesn't have any basis in fact."
He added: "She obviously wasn't armed, was not a threat to anyone, and nor could she have reasonably been perceived to be."
Officer Mohamed Noor, who shot Ms Damond in the abdomen in an upmarket neighbourhood of the city, has refused to be interviewed by investigators, as is his legal right.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The question is whether his partner will talk or if the Blue veil of silence has fallen over him already.
I called the police some years back. I approached the car as it drove up. The cop stopped his car about 50 feet short, got out of the car and made it very clear I was to stop my approach.
In this case, the woman most likely approached the car from the rear, 450 feet from her house at the end of the alley.
Wealthy neighborhood, 40 yr olf blond lady in pajamas who called the cops walking up to the car.
It's not a wealthy neighborhood. Look at it on Google or Bing.
This whole event stinks to high heaven.
The driver copy Harrity now has a lawyer too. Why?
Well if you thought there was a gun, but there wasn’t a gun, then you committed murder.
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What law are you using to make that conclusion?
If it was an upmarket neighborhood then that makes it more likely the scene of the shooting was reasonably well lit.
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It’s not upmarket. You can look at it on Google or Bing.
But it was a sex assault call. Wouldn’t think they’d figure a woman running up to them was the victim?
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She most likely approached from behind the car and they probably didn’t see her until she appeared in the window. It’s not known whether they had the conditions to tell if she was a man or a woman.
And firing from inside the car. That doesnt happen very often.
Is it his defence that he actually thought they were being ambushed by a group of blond white women in their Pajamas? Does this happen often in Minneapolis as well?
The muslem Shia/honor/ego thing has to enter in somewhere?
Sharia in action. More to come...
Any reason why a Somali (insert expletive) officer would not wish that activity officially reported?
I thought the same thing, but didn't say it. Islam (and Somalia) truly is a rape culture
Article describes the neighborhood as upmarket
Somalis in Minneapolis; what a great idea !
I think that cop right to refuse to talk is time limited. He can’t refuse forever.
I bet this inexperienced cop....pulled his gun and had his finger in the trigger-guard (contrary to training, I’ve read, to put your finger inside the guard unless you are sure you’re going to shoot...). He was nervous and jumpy, got startled, and accidentally pulled the trigger when the woman came up from the side.
Inexperience and bad-training...
I cannot believe even the worst cop—Muslim or not—would purposely with premeditation shoot an unarmed woman.
Ever hear of a Lois Lerner or Susan Rice?
That part of the article is Fake News.
This is just a few blocks of where my grandparents lived when I was growing up. My parents grew up within a mile of there. I drove by there a couple of summers ago and it looked about the same as I remember from 30 years ago.
Older, but well-kept homes on a 40’x100’ lot I’m guessing. Front yard, house, back yard, garage in the back yard with alley to get to the garage.
It isn’t upscale, but it isn’t poor either. Lower middle-class I would guess?? 50th street is the main road through the area - but still pretty much just homes. I think a few blocks east there is an intersection with some basic (and decent) shops.
I would think that it is a pretty low-risk area for crime.
I agree with you. They are older, smaller, lower middle class, well-maintained homes. I wouldn’t call them affluent or upmarket.
Looking at a crime map from my safe space, I’d say there is almost no chance of an ambush occurring there, but we have to keep in mind that the lady was reporting a possible rape in the alley. In the past six months there’s been some house burglaries, but not much in the way of violence.
And if somebody wants the brutal truth, mostly white people live there.
You ever try to unholster a weapon when seated?
How about with a sealbelt on?
Something very wrong here!
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