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| Justine Damond shooting: prosecutor blames investigators over delay | Justine Damond shooting: prosecutor blames investigators over delay |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A US county attorney handling the police shooting of Australian Justine Damond has blamed investigators for the delay in the decision on whether to press charges against police officer Mohamed Noor, saying he doesn’t yet have the evidence. | A US county attorney handling the police shooting of Australian Justine Damond has blamed investigators for the delay in the decision on whether to press charges against police officer Mohamed Noor, saying he doesn’t yet have the evidence. |
| Mike Freeman, attorney for Hennepin county, was recorded at a meeting on Wednesday night saying: “I’ve got to have the evidence and I don’t have it yet. And let me just say, it’s not my fault. So if it isn’t my fault, who didn’t do their jobs? … Investigators, and they don’t work for me.” | Mike Freeman, attorney for Hennepin county, was recorded at a meeting on Wednesday night saying: “I’ve got to have the evidence and I don’t have it yet. And let me just say, it’s not my fault. So if it isn’t my fault, who didn’t do their jobs? … Investigators, and they don’t work for me.” |
| The prosecutor made the remarks after activists confronted him at a union reception and asked him why he had not yet announced charges in the case against Noor. Freeman had previously indicated he would make a decision before the end of the year. | |
| “If you look at this, here’s a nice lady who hears something bad outside, she calls the cops, they don’t come, she calls again, they drive by in her alley, they don’t stop to talk with her, and she comes out in her jammies, and she’s killed by a cop. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But, it’s not just,” Freeman said in the video posted to Facebook by an activist group. “Can I prove the cop shot her? I could’ve done that the first day. That’s not how it works.” | “If you look at this, here’s a nice lady who hears something bad outside, she calls the cops, they don’t come, she calls again, they drive by in her alley, they don’t stop to talk with her, and she comes out in her jammies, and she’s killed by a cop. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But, it’s not just,” Freeman said in the video posted to Facebook by an activist group. “Can I prove the cop shot her? I could’ve done that the first day. That’s not how it works.” |
| Damond was shot by Noor in Minneapolis in July after she called 911 to report a woman screaming outside her house in her affluent suburban neighbourhood. According to information released so far by investigators, Damond approached the the police vehicle, tapped the back and walked to the driver’s side window, when Noor, who was in the passenger seat, shot across the driver, his partner, striking Damond in the abdomen. | |
| Freeman, who does not appear to realise he was being recorded, expressed his frustrations with Noor’s decision not to talk to investigators by invoking his constitutional rights. He also criticised Noor’s partner, who was in the driver’s seat. “He won’t answer my questions and he doesn’t have to. We all have fifth amendment rights ... I can’t talk to her because she’s gone, and the other cop just gave us shit,” he said. | |
| Investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed its inquiry and handed over their findings to Freeman in September. | Investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed its inquiry and handed over their findings to Freeman in September. |
| This week groups including Justice for Justine announced they would hold a street rally in Minneapolis, whether charges were laid or not. |