After 1st Court Appearance, Noor Posts Bond, Is Released From Jail
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A day after being charged with murder in the death of Justine Damond, former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor is out of jail.
Noor posted bond Wednesday evening and left the Hennepin County Jail with his lawyer just before 9:30 p.m. He's facing charges of murder and manslaughter for the shooting death of Justine Damond last summer.
Inside a Hennepin County courtroom packed with his supporters and relatives earlier in the day, Noor was calm and collected. He wore an orange jail jumpsuit and sat behind a plastic screen as lawyers argued about how high his bail should be.
The prosecution argued that the former Minneapolis police officer's bail should be $500,000 because he posed a flight risk, citing evidence that he might have left the country during the eight-month investigation of the fatal shooting.
Noor's lawyer, Thomas Plunkett, called the prosecution's bail request outrageous, saying there was no evidence to suggest that his client left the U.S.
In the end, Judge Kathryn Quaintance set Noor's bail at $400,000 on the condition that he surrender his passport and firearms and refrain from contacting the Minneapolis Police Department and his former partner, Matthew Harrity, the only witness to the July 15 shooting.
On Tuesday, Noor was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Damond, a 40-year-old life coach and Australian native who lived in south Minneapolis.
On the night of the shooting, Damond called police to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. When Noor and Harrity arrived in the alley, the officers were startled in the squad car and Noor fired his gun from the passenger's seat, striking Damond in the abdomen.
According to a criminal complaint, Noor's partner reported that he feared for his life in the moments before the shooting. The officers performed CPR on Damond, but she died in the alley.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Noor remained in custody. His next court date is slated for May 8.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who charged Noor, admits that convicting him will be difficult.
"We have a daunting task in front of us," Freeman said when announcing the charges Tuesday.
And there are statistics to prove it. A study done by Bowling Green State University tracked about 12,000 officer-involved shootings between 2005 and mid-2017. Eighty two officers were charged with murder or manslaughter. Of those, 29 were convicted, and most of those convictions were for lesser manslaughter charges.
Only one officer was convicted of intentional murder.