.
On the night of the shooting, Damond called 9-1-1 at 11:27 pm and again at 11:35 pm.
[22] She reported that she thought she heard a woman either having sex or being raped.
[23] Dispatchers categorized the call as "unknown trouble: female screaming"—a relatively low priority. Officers Noor and Harrity responded to the low-crime neighborhood of
Fulton, in southwestern Minneapolis, drove their police Ford Explorer with lights off through the alley
[24] and found no suspects or signs of the suspected rape that had prompted Damond's calls.
[25]
As the officers prepared to leave, Noor "entered 'Code Four' into the cruiser's computer, meaning the scene was safe".
[24] Harrity would later indicate "that he was startled by a loud sound near the squad" and, just then, Damond approached the police car's driver-side window.
[26] Harrity drew his weapon, but pointed it downward and did not fire.
[27] Noor, however, fired once through the open window, fatally striking an unarmed and barefoot Damond in the abdomen.
[24][26] The officers attempted
CPR to no avail; Damond died 20 minutes later.
[28] Harrity later told a supervisor "We both got spooked."
[24]
At Noor's trial, Harrity testified of hearing "something hit the car and I also hear some sort of murmur" and that he feared an "ambush" but deemed it "premature" to use deadly force.
[27] Noor testified that he did not see Damond's hand or any object in it, but nonetheless believed that his partner "feared for his life" and "there was a threat".
[29] The prosecutors presented evidence that Damond's fingerprints were not on the police car, suggesting she had never made contact with it, and called two expert witnesses on
police use of force, who testified that Noor's decision to shoot was unreasonable.
[30]
Both officers had their
body cameras switched off.
[31] Minneapolis introduced police body cameras in 2016, but their activation was not mandatory in all situations.
[32] No audio or video recordings captured the killing,
[24] although a 16-year-old bicyclist took cell-phone video of the scene after the shooting.
[33]