Posted on 07/20/2017 11:21:30 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
The family of an Australian woman shot to death by Minneapolis police has hired an attorney who represented the family of Philando Castile.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The family of an Australian woman shot to death by a Minneapolis police officer has hired an attorney who represented the family of black motorist Philando Castile, who was also slain by a Minnesota police officer. Minneapolis attorney Bob Bennett confirmed Thursday to The Associated Press that he was representing the family of Justine Damond, who died Saturday night shortly after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home.
Officer Mohamed Noor shot Damond, a 40-year-old life coach, once through the window of his police vehicle after she approached the car. Noor's partner told state investigators that he had been startled by a loud noise right before the shooting. Noor has declined to be interviewed.
Bennett, who helped Castile's family reach a nearly $3 million settlement with the suburb of St. Anthony, was in a deposition Thursday and not immediately available for an interview.
He told a Minneapolis television state that Damond's family in Australia is in disbelief. "She obviously was not armed, she was not a threat to anyone, nor could she have reasonably been perceived to be," he told ily in Australia is in disbelief. "She obviously was not armed, she was not a threat to anyone, nor could she have reasonably been perceived to be," he told WCCO-TV.
Bennett strongly disputed the suggestion from an attorney for Noor's partner that the two officers might reasonably have feared an ambush. "I think that is ludicrous, that is disinformation," Bennett said. "It doesn't have any basis in fact."
Noor, who has been with the department almost two years, cannot be forced to talk to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He will have to give a statement as part of his department's internal investigation.
According to the state bureau, Noor's partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, told investigators he was driving in the alley with all of the vehicle's lights off when he was startled by a loud noise, which authorities did not describe. Harrity said Damond appeared at the driver's side window "immediately afterward" and Noor fired, striking her in the abdomen. She died at the scene.
When it comes to talking to authorities, defense attorneys and legal experts said police officers have the same constitutional right against self-incrimination as everyone else.
"Any lawyer that would recommend to him that he should give a statement to the BCA should be disbarred," said Joe Friedberg, a Minneapolis defense attorney who's not involved in the case. "Nobody should ever speak to law enforcement when they're the subject of a criminal investigation."
In contrast, Officer Jeronimo Yanez in the nearby suburb of St. Anthony sat down with state agents last summer the day after he shot Castile. Prosecutors used his statement as evidence against him during his manslaughter trial, but the defense used it, too. Jurors apparently accepted Yanez's claims that he saw Castile's gun and believed his life was in danger. Yanez was acquitted.
The Minneapolis Police Department's internal affairs unit can compel Noor to give a statement as part of its investigation, and fire him if he refuses, but that statement cannot be used against him in any criminal investigation, Friedberg said.
Assistant Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said an internal use-of-force investigation has been opened, which is standard whenever an officer discharges a weapon. The police chief has asked that the review be expedited, but much of the information needed is in the hands of state investigators
Police did not respond to questions Wednesday about the internal investigation. Noor's attorney, Thomas Plunkett, has not responded to interview requests from The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, details that have emerged raised new questions about whether proper police procedures were followed.
KSTP-TV, citing a source it did not name, said the two officers thought they were being targeted for an ambush when they heard a pounding noise on the driver's side. Noor had his gun on his lap, the station said.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension did not confirm the KSTP report. Harrity's attorney, Fred Bruno, told the Star Tribune it was "certainly reasonable" for the officers to fear a possible ambush.
Several criminal law professors who spoke to the AP said it would be unusual if Noor had his gun out when officers were checking out a report of a potential assault. But they said he might have been in a heightened state of awareness in light of recent ambushes of police.
Remy Cross, a criminologist at Webster University in suburban St. Louis, said the fear can become a "self-feeding, self-fulfilling prophecy" when law enforcement officers feel they always need to be on guard against people who might be targeting them.
David Klinger, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, said it would make no sense for Noor to have his gun out because it wasn't a "hot call," such as a report of shots fired.
And it's also unusual, but not unheard of, for officers to turn their lights out to make a "dark and silent approach" if they're trying to conceal themselves, said Jens David Ohlin, vice dean of the Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York.
Harrity has been with the Police Department for one year, Noor for roughly two years. When asked about pairing the two newer officers together, Arradondo told reporters Tuesday that both men were "fully trained." Ohlin said it's not necessarily a violation of procedures to pair inexperienced officers with each other, but it makes sense to pair a senior officer with a junior officer.
Transcripts of 911 calls that were made public Wednesday show Damond called dispatchers twice to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home.
Damond made her first call at 11:27 p.m., when she said she heard a possible sexual assault. She told the dispatcher she wasn't sure but thought a woman was in distress. She called back eight minutes later when no officers had arrived and told the dispatcher she was worried they had the gone to the wrong address.
Arradondo told reporters that officers searched the area and found no suspects.
OK. Unfortunately, when it comes to young black men, cops are indeed wary and may occasionally make very bad judgment calls. In this case, though, who would blow away a blond woman? She’s not from the class of people who truly prey on our cops.
I’ll believe it was jihadi terrorism until some hard and clear facts prove otherwise. You’re not alone in your thoughts.
Exactly. Had a similar situation...my mind worked that way too.
That sounds great - until you understand that a lot of cops mostly deal with those who have no problem telling flat-out lies. Hence the derogatory 'dindunuffin'.
Sometimes it's a need for revenge. That truck with the women were driving away down the street when the cops opened fire, riddling the back and rear windows with holes. Oops, not the bad guy but two innocent women in the truck.
Long ago, a brother-in-law told me about when he and a bunch of other cops were looking for a suspect, spotted the car, stopped it, dragged out the driver and started a beatdown. Then the radio announced the perp was caught elsewhere. Oops. Nowadays cops don't get away with this stuff.
And yet somehow the overwhelming majority of police officers manage to do a difficult and dangerous job day after day without shooting people who posed no threat to them. Wonder how they manage that? </sarcasm>
And what result is that?
Millions of dollars of taxpayer money paid out as settlements to the victim’s family. Any sane person supports law and order, though they have to figure out how to decouple taxpayer dollars from being used as an ATM by the legal system every time they f&$k up. There needs to be a direct feedback mechanism. Take it out of their pension fund.
At least one might think they would be a little more circumspect about whom they hire? Just thinking outloud. The cops deserve our support - guess who the mob is going after, once the police has been eliminated - but I don’t see why my property taxes have to go to pay for these knuckleheads that shouldn’t be on the force in the first place.
Wrong,wrong,WRONG! First,what are the chances that these lawyers would believe for a minute that this was jihad? Remember,99% of this nation's "personal injury" lawyers are Rats.
Second,even if these lawyers were open to the possibility of jihad they'd be stupid to explore it because doing so would surely lessen (perhaps dramatically) the amount their clients got.
If jihad is investigated it will be by the DoJ...not the press,not the Rats,not the lawyers.
No indictment on the grounds that the officer feared for his safety and that of his partner. Works every time.
Millions of dollars of taxpayer money paid out as settlements to the victim’s family. Any sane person supports law and order, though they have to figure out how to decouple taxpayer dollars from being used as an ATM by the legal system every time they f&$k up. There needs to be a direct feedback mechanism. Take it out of their pension fund.
The problem is that when they f&$k up then someone dies. The responsibility has to lie with the city who should not have put the officer on the street to begin with.
At least one might think they would be a little more circumspect about whom they hire? Just thinking outloud. The cops deserve our support - guess who the mob is going after, once the police has been eliminated - but I don’t see why my property taxes have to go to pay for these knuckleheads that shouldn’t be on the force in the first place.
I don't think anyone begrudges the police all our support when they deserve it. When they don't they need to pay the same price for killing someone that you or I would.
I expect Bennett chased down the family and told them he had experience in a similar case.
I have noticed that there seems to be no one asking about any statements his partner might have made. Yes, the killer in this case does have the right to remain silent to protect himself, but his partner does not.
I suspect you are right. Of course if your average citizen were to just kill some random unarmed person because they made a "furtive movement" or just because they were scared of the dark, we'd not get the same consideration. The king can kill his subjects any time he so pleases.
Mussie scum with a badge and a gun.....what could go wrong?
You’re probably right.
Seems as if the cop panicked.
It reminds me of the time in LA when there was a crazy cop killer on the loose and a bunch of police got so scared they thought women delivering the paper in a truck were the guy and they opened up fire on the truck.
It was pure fear and panic.
...
I think you’re right in both cases. The cops in LA were really scared, which I think was a management failure. Now to find out why Noor was so scared. He should have known an ambush would be very unlikely in that location.
Actually, they’re very similar cases. In both cases a human being was senselessly murdered by someone who thought he could get away with it because he had a badge.
However, in the Castile case, there is also a Second Amendment issue not present in the more recent one.
Have to confess I’m astonished any person here would ever imply that possession of a legal firearm by a CCW holder in any way justifies his street execution.
It will be real interesting to find out if both shooters were sterling graduates of the same POST academy.
Wow! You sound like a defeatist type of person. I wouldn’t want to have you in my corner — I don’t hang with people who are ready to surrender before they begin. But I see your point and hope that their attorneys are made of sterner & more perceptive stuff.
Your response gave me a good chuckle.You clearly haven't had many encounters with lawyers.Come back and talk to me once you come to understand that all the lawyer jokes you've heard are really serious analysis.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.