- A former
Minneapolis cop who fatally shot an unarmed woman had hissentenced reduced Thursday. - Mohamed Noor was originally sentenced to 12.5 years for the murder of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.
A former Minneapolis officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman as he responded to her 911 call in 2017 was sentenced Thursday to nearly five years behind bars after his murder conviction in the case was overturned last month.
Mohamed Noor had originally been convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the killing of Justine Ruszczyk Damond and was initially sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.
But last month, the Minnesota Supreme Court threw out Noor's murder conviction and sentence, saying there was not enough evidence to support the murder charge, the Associated Press reported.
The Minnesota Supreme Court found that Noor didn't kill Ruszczyk with the "mental state necessary for depraved-mind murder" and that the evidence was "insufficient to sustain his conviction" on the murder charge.
On Thursday, Judge Kathryn Quaintance handed down the new sentence of 57 months behind bars - the maximum that could be imposed on the second-degree manslaughter conviction.
At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Damond's fiance, Don, appeared by Zoom to read a victim impact statement, Fox 9 reporter Paul Blume tweeted.
The man told Noor that Ruszczyk would forgive him for what happened and that he has forgiven him.
-Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) October 21, 2021
Noor shot and killed 40-year-old Ruszczyk, a US-Australian citizen and yoga teacher, after she called 911 to report a possible rape happening in back of her home. The officer had fired his gun through his patrol car's window.
The city of Minneapolis had paid Ruszczyk's family $20 million in a settlement.