(AP Photo)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of a Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder (all times local):
11:10 a.m.
A Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder has been sentenced to a 12½-year prison term for the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman who had called 911.
A Minnesota jury convicted Mohamed Noor in April of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the July 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia. Noor shot Damond when she approached his squad car in the alley behind her home.
Noor’s lawyers had argued for a light sentence, saying sending him to prison would only compound the tragedy and leave him unable to make amends for killing Damond.
But Judge Kathryn Quaintance on Friday sentenced the 33-year-old Noor to the identical sentence recommended under state guidelines.
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12:05 a.m.
Attorneys for a Minneapolis police officer convicted in the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman are asking a judge for a creative sentence that keeps him out of prison.
Mohamed Noor was found guilty in April of murder and manslaughter in the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. He shot Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, when she approached his squad car just minutes after she had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home.
State guidelines call for 12½ years in prison on the murder charge, but Noor’s attorneys argue that putting him in prison would make it impossible for him to make amends for Damond’s death.
They’ve suggested Noor be given probation and be required to spend a week in jail each year on Damond’s birthday and the anniversary of her death.
