Now he feels as if his colleagues have thrown him under the bus. But it isn’t hard to understand their reluctance to stand behind him. Officers ought to be able to stand being “startled” without opening fire.
This revelation only makes it more likely that Noor was only on the force to head off “Islamophobia” charges. With three complaints against him in two years, Mohamed Noor seems at very least to be dangerously reckless and/or incompetent. It is likely that Minneapolis officials were so anxious to have a Somali Muslim police officer they could showcase that they put Mohamed Noor on the force and kept him there when his obvious shortcomings would have had a non-Muslim officer fired or not hired in the first place.
“EXCLUSIVE: Killer cop says he shot Justine Damond because he was ‘startled’ by her when she ran towards his car in the dark after loud noise – and had no idea she was 911 caller,” by Shekhar Bhatia, Dailymail.com, July 19, 2017:
Killer policeman Mohamed Noor has said he was ‘startled’ by his victim Justine Damond seconds before he opened fire.
The cop has told friends about why he gunned down the bride-to-be, 40, in his first account of what happened Saturday night.
DailyMail.com has spoken to those friends to reveal for the first time his account of what happened that night.
The fact Noor has disclosed the events of the evening to friends will raise questions over his conduct.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which is investigating the shooting, said in a statement Tuesday that he had declined to be interviewed and that his attorney had not said if or when an interview would take place.
However, many of the key parts of Noor’s narrative gel with the version of events released by the BCA, who had interviewed his partner, Matthew Harrity.
Justine was unarmed and had called 911 caller to alert police to what she believed may have been a rape taking place in the alley behind her home.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a friend of Noor told DailyMail.com that the officer had opened fire when an unidentified figure emerged from the dark and ran towards the vehicle.
The officer said he was not sure what the person was carrying and momentarily opened fire through his driver-partner’s open window.
It was confirmed that Justine’s cell phone was found alongside her during the tragedy.
Noor told associates it was dark and the situation was already tense as the caller had been ‘panicking’ when making the 911 call reporting an assault in the alley beyond where Justine lived with her fiancé and his son.
The squad car, driven by his partner Matthew Harrity traveled hastily down the unlit alley between Washburn and Xerxes avenues south from West 50th Street toward West 51st Street.
Crucially, the vehicle did not have its lights on and this may have been so as not to give any suspect notice that police had arrived and buy precious time to apprehend the target. That the car was unlit was disclosed by Harrity to the BCA.
Both Noor and the BCA’s version of events agree on the car’s lights being off.
According to Noor’s version when they reached the end of the alley, they came across a waiting, panicking figure.
It was dark, and the figure was moving around and approached their vehicle.
Noor said he did not know whether the figure who rushed towards their vehicle was the 911 caller or even if it was a man or woman.
He his weapon through Harrity’s open driver’s window hitting his victim once in the abdomen.
Both he and Harrity gave CPR to the victim before help and back up arrived, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The friend said: ‘Mohamed believes he acted to protect himself and his colleague, but accepts since that she was not armed.
‘It was over in seconds and it was a very tense moment. He is sorry for the woman and her family.
‘But he would never have opened fire without genuinely feeling in danger.’
The officer, who is now suspended form the Minneapolis P.D., feels he has been ‘thrown under the bus’ by his Minneapolis police colleagues, the friend said.
‘He is aware that they normally come together at times like this and support each other with slogans like “Blue Lives Matter”.
‘But in this situation he has realized he is probably alone with his legal team and Somali police colleagues.
‘He feels like he is being thrown under the bus and his colleagues are accusing him of not showing proper police conduct on Saturday night….