THE US city where an Aussie bride-to-be was shot dead by a cop has been described as a “police state” run by “out-of-control officers”.
THE mid-western US city where an Australian bride-to-be was mysteriously shot dead by a cop is a “police state” run by “out-of-control officers”, according to a community activist.
Shock has turned to anger in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Sydney woman Justine Damond, 40, was inexplicably shot “multiple times” by police officer Mohamed Noor.
Ms Damond, a yoga teacher, had heard a noise in the back alley near her home in the Fulton neighbourhood on Saturday night and called the police suspecting someone was being sexually assaulted.
When a police vehicle arrived about 11.30pm, she talked to the officers through the car door. Mr Noor was seated in the passenger’s seat and shot across his colleague multiple times, killing Ms Damond. She was wearing her pyjamas at the time.
Why the woman was shot remains a mystery.
The Minneapolis Police Department has refused requests to explain the incident, which is now being investigated by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
The bureau confirmed on Monday afternoon that Ms Damond was unarmed, saying in a statement that no weapons were found at the scene. It also said that the two officers involved had yet to be interviewed.
The incident has quickly taken on a political dimension in the state, where a spate of fatal police shootings have sparked mass protests.
Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB), said Minnesota police departments had a history of “secretive” behaviour after these incidents that denied justice to victims and their families.
“The main problem is that police have entirely too much power and almost no accountability,” Ms Gross told news.com.au.
She said Minnesota was a “police state” where officers had the power to “spy on people at will” and were protected absolutely when they shot people without provocation.
Police officers have killed 443 people in Minnesota since 2000, an average of 26 a year, according to CUAPB records.
“People are absolutely frustrated and upset … that somebody could be killed being a good neighbour,” Ms Gross said.
Ms Gross attended a vigil for Ms Damond in Minnesota on Sunday.
“A woman should not call for help then end up murdered,” Bethany Bradley, of Women’s March Minnesota, said at the event.
Ms Damond, known in Sydney as Justine Ruszczyk, was due to marry her fiance Don Damond within weeks, but she had already adopted his last name.
The qualified veterinary surgeon lived with Mr Damond and his son Zach, 22, in a bungalow about 60m from where she was killed. A family friend, Julie Reed, told reporters in Sydney yesterday that she would be remembered for her “energy, intelligence and joy”.
Mr Damond was out of town on business when the shooting occurred, which left Zach to deal with the shock of the incident on his own.
“He is quite distraught, and quite understandably so,” said Ms Gross, whose organisation has offered support to the family in the wake of the shooting.
Zach reacted to the death of his stepmother in a heart-wrenching video posted to Facebook.
“Basically my mum’s dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don’t know,” he said while in tears.
Minneapolis has allocated $6.4 million to equip its police officers with body cameras after a spate of police shootings, but questions have been raised about why the cameras were not turned on during this incident.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said the officers had violated police policy by failing to turn the cameras on.
“This violation of policy thwarted the public’s right to know what happened to Ms Damond and why the police killed her. The two officers broke the policy not only when they didn’t activate the body cameras before the incident, but also when they failed to do so after the use of force,” spokeswoman Teresa Nelson said.
Ms Gross offered an apology to the people of Australia and Ms Damond’s family for the shooting.
“I would like to extend to the people of Australia our deepest sympathies for what happened and let them know that we’re sad and determined to make change,” she told news.com.au.
The BCA, which has been tasked with investigating the incident, provided scant new details to explain the shooting in a statement on Monday afternoon.
The bureau said its staffers found no weapons at the scene on Saturday night and confirmed that the two officers involved in the incident, who were placed on “standard administrative leave”, had yet to be interviewed.
“The officers are working with their attorneys to schedule [the interviews],” the BCA said.
An autopsy has been conducted on Ms Damond but the results have not been released.
The Minneapolis Police Department declined to answer questions put by news.com.au, referring all queries to the BCA.
However, the city’s police chief, Janee Harteau, did acknowledge the “pain and frustration” of the family and community following the shooting.
“This is clearly a tragic death,” she said in a statement.
“I also want to assure you that I understand why so many people have so many questions at this point.
The people of Minnesota, particularly its black community, has a strained relationship with police after a spate of fatal shootings at the hands of officers.
One of the most controversial is the case of African-American Jamar Clark, who was fatally shot in the head in Minneapolis’s north on November 15, 2015, sparking an 18-day protest.
The police said Mr Clark was trying to grab an officer’s gun when he was shot, while other witnesses said the 24-year-old was handcuffed when he was shot.
The public prosecutor decided against charging the two officers involved, saying the evidence supported the police’s version of events.
In another shocking incident, the immediate aftermath of a police shooting was live-streamed on Facebook.
Police officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed African-American Philando Castile in front of his girlfriend and four-year-old daughter in Minneapolis’s nearby twin city, St Paul, last July.
The police officer said he believed Mr Castile was going to pull a gun on him, so he shot him first. He shot at Mr Castile seven times.
Mr Yanez was charged with manslaughter, but he was found not guilty by a jury.
Ms Damond’s death is one of more than 500 fatal shootings by police in the US in 2017 alone, according to The Washington Post.