Minneapolis police fatally shot Australian woman after hearing ‘loud sound,’ investigators say

Relatives of an Australian woman fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers over the weekend sharply questioned the lack of information about the shooting, which has again fueled distrust of law enforcement among the city's residents amid uncertainty about what happened.

Family members say Justine Damond, 40, called 911 on Saturday night to report a potential sexual assault near her home in an upscale Minneapolis neighborhood. Officials say two Minneapolis police officers responded to the call just before 11:30 p.m. What happened in Damond's final moments were unclear, but about 20 minutes after the 911 call, she was dead after one of the officers fired into her abdomen.

State investigators have been probing the shooting, but they have released scant details publicly, saying only that it was not captured on video. Damond's relatives, meanwhile, have pleaded for any information about what happened before she was shot and killed.

'Our hearts are broken and we are utterly devastated by the loss of Justine,” Don Damond, her fiance, said Monday at a news briefing. 'Sadly, her family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived. We've lost the dearest of people and we're desperate for information.”

Damond said that understanding her last moments 'would be a small comfort as we grieve this tragedy.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the state agency investigating the shooting, said Monday that it would provide more details about what happened after the two officers involved have been interviewed. Both officers were placed on standard administrative leave.

Officials have not publicly confirmed the names of the officers who responded Saturday night. Multiple media reports have identified a Somali-American police officer as the one who fired the fatal shot, prompting fear in the Twin Cities' Somali community about a possible backlash.

The Minneapolis Police Department has declined to identify the officer involved, saying the name would be released by the BCA. The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, a police union, declined to comment, saying only that they had provided the officer an attorney. That attorney, Thomas Plunkett, confirmed that he is representing the officer who has been named in media reports, but did not respond to questions seeking to confirm whether his client fired the fatal shot.

Janeé Harteau, the Minneapolis police chief, called the shooting 'a tragic death” and said she was also feeling the same uncertainty reverberating through the community.

'I also want to assure you that I understand why so many people have so many questions at this point,” Harteau said in a statement Monday. 'I have many of the same questions and that is why we immediately asked for an external and independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting death.”

The shooting has prompted far more questions than answers. Damond's fiance said she was calling in 'what she believed was an active sexual assault occurring nearby.” Investigators say the officers had not turned on their body cameras at the time of the shooting, though they have not said why. Officials also say the squad car camera did not capture the shooting.

According to the Minneapolis Police Department's body camera policy, the cameras can be activated by a 'trigger event” - including the activation of the squad car lights - but otherwise have to be manually activated. The policy outlines select cases where officers are required to activate their body cameras, including any stop of a motor vehicle, any time someone is transported in a police car or for interviews in domestic abuse cases.

Adding to the uncertainty: The Minneapolis Star Tribune, citing three unnamed sources, reported that Damond was fatally struck while speaking to the squad car's driver at their door. The newspaper reported that the officer who fired struck Damond through the driver's door. Investigators have not said why the officer fired, nor have they said what - if anything - was said during Damond's interactions with police.

On Monday evening, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner confirmed that Damond was killed by a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. In a statement, the medical examiner's office ruled her death a homicide and said she died Saturday at 11:51 p.m. in an alleyway. (The statement identified her as Justine Ruszczyk, though she had already begun using her fiance's name.)

When the state investigation is complete, the findings will be given to the office of Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman for a review of whether any criminal charges should be filed.

'It doesn't make any sense,” Damond's stepson-to-be, Zach, said about the shooting. 'I just want to have a conversation with that man.”

Zach Damond said that if he spoke to the officer, he would ask: 'Why? Why did you do it?”

When he spoke to reporters Monday, Don Damond recalled his fiance as 'so kind and so darn funny,” adding, 'It is difficult to fathom how to go forward without her in my life.”

Damond's death has also reverberated in Australia, where her friends have demanded a federal investigation. Her father, John Ruszczyk, pleaded for 'the light of justice” to 'shine down on the circumstances of her death.” The Justice Department declined to comment about the case and calls for a federal probe.

The shooting has also renewed a sense of unease some residents feel toward police officers. Lois and John Rafferty said they'd be reluctant to call the police for help and wouldn't go outside to talk to them if they did call, noting that the shooting made no sense to them.

'How many people have to get shot?” John Rafferty said. 'You can walk your dog at midnight around here. Minneapolis is not Syria.”

Damond is one of at least 543 people fatally shot by police in the United States this year, according to a Washington Post database tracking such deaths. She is the 23rd woman listed in The Post's database this year.

This shooting is the third in recent years to draw intense national attention to the Twin Cities. Last year, a suburban police officer shot and killed Philando Castile, a local school worker, during a traffic stop that was partially streamed on Facebook. That footage went viral, sparking protests that lasted for weeks. The officer in that case, Jeronimo Yanez, was acquitted by a jury last month and then left his department. Dash-cam video in that case showed Yanez firing numerous times into Castile's car but did not show what was happening inside the vehicle. Yanez has said he believed Castile was going for a weapon, an account Castile's girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat, disputed.

In 2015, two Minneapolis police officers encountered and fatally shot Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old. His death also set off intense demonstrations outside a Minneapolis police station. The county prosecutor said the officers would not face charges because they believed Clark was going for their gun, while the Justice Department said they would not face federal civil rights charges because an investigation did not prove they intended to violate Clark's civil rights.

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The Washington Post's Emily Sohn in Minneapolis and Kristine Phillips and Katie Mettler in Washington contributed to this report.