"There will be many cases after this where a white officer kills a black kid. It will happen,"Nur said."Then what are you gonna do? Because now we set a precedent saying if you kill someone,you will be prosecuted. You will go to jail. Are you going to do the same things for those cops?"
Loading
"Wrong Complexion For Blue Protection,"read another man's sign.
"This case is about a black Muslim immigrant,"said Ahmednur Abdirahman,36,who was among the protesters."They are worried about disappointing the white community. For that reason,justice was not served today."
Noor,his voice breaking several times as he spoke publicly about the shooting for the first time,apologised repeatedly to Damond and her family for"taking the life of a perfect person".
"I have lived with this and I will continue to live with this,"Noor said."I caused this tragedy and it is my burden. I wish though that I could relieve that burden others feel from the loss that I caused. I cannot,and that is a troubling reality for me."
Noor said from the moment he pulled the trigger he felt fear,and he was horrified to see Damond's body on the ground.
"The depth of my error has only increased from that moment on,"he said."Working to save her life and watching her slip away is a feeling I can't explain... It leaves me sad,it leaves me numb,and feeling incredibly lonely. But none of that,none of those words capture what it truly feels like."
Tom Plunkett,Noor's attorney,asked Quaintance for a sentence as lenient as probation. He described Noor's desire to become a police officer in part to repay a debt he felt to the country that took him in long ago as a refugee.
"I have never stood up at sentencing with anyone my entire career that's done more or worked harder to be a good person,to earn the gifts he's been given,"Plunkett said."That's who Mohamed Noor is."
Loading
But prosecutor Amy Sweasy called for the recommended 12½ years. She noted that Damond had called 911 seeking help.
"And it was the defendant's responsibility when he encountered her in that alley to investigate and appreciate and discern that before he pulled the trigger,"she said."That was his responsibility,and his failure to do that is what resulted in the criminal act."
Noor testified during his trial that a loud bang on the squad car startled him and his partner,and that he saw a woman at his partner's window raising her arm. He said he fired to protect his partner's life. But prosecutors criticised Noor for shooting without seeing a weapon or Damond's hands,and disputed whether either of them really heard a bang.
Don Damond,Justine's fiance,said in court on Friday that every time he sees the alley where she walked barefoot and in her pyjamas toward the police car he relives the moment.
"In my mind I beg you to turn around,"he said,speaking of a"lost future"of decades filled with"love,family,joy and laughter."He said Justine was his soul mate with"a Muppetlike way of being in the world."
"We both lived with our hearts open,caring for others,"Damond said.
Justine's father,John Ruszczyk,in a statement read in court,asked for the maximum sentence and called her killing"an obscene act by an agent of the state".
"Justine's death has left me incomplete - it is as if I have lost a limb or a leg,"he said in the statement."I have lost my daughter,I have lost those private conversations over tea."
Noor sat quietly at the defence table with hands clasped,eyes usually closed and showing no emotion as victim impact statements were read.
Noor sat quietly at the defense table with hands clasped,eyes usually closed and showing no emotion as victim impact statements were read.
Noor was returned after his sentencing to the state's maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights,where he has been held since his conviction in a secure unit for his safety. Under Minnesota law,he would serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison,assuming good behaviour,and the remaining third on supervised release.
His lawyers said they were disappointed in the sentence and hinted that they plan to appeal,which they have 90 days to do.
AP