Minneapolis Police Chief Resigns After Justine Damond Death

Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau has resigned after her depart­ment was rocked by an offi­cer-involved shoot­ing that she slammed as “unnec­es­sary.”

Harteau resigned Friday evening, less than a week after her offi­cer Mohamed Noor shot and killed Justine Damond, who had called 911 to report a pos­si­ble sex­u­al assault out­side her house.

Damond, a 40-year-old med­i­ta­tion teacher sched­uled to be mar­ried next month, was fatal­ly shot as she approached the police cruis­er and the cops were star­tled by a loud sound.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges had expressed shock at the shoot­ing, and on Friday tried to explain the shake-up.

“We need new lead­er­ship at” the depart­ment, Hodges said at a Friday night news con­fer­ence. “We are not slow­ing the pace of our transformation.”

But pro­test­ers were angry with Hodges’ own lead­er­ship and quick­ly shut down her news conference.
“We want you to step down just as your Chief Harteau did,” a pro­test­er yelled. “We want you to take your staff with you because they have ter­ror­ized us enough.”
Hodges made a failed bid to calm the jeers.

“I hear and under­stand your objec­tions,” she said before the news con­fer­ence was drowned out by shout­ing. “I am hap­py to sit down and talk with peo­ple here in Minneapolis.”

Harteau said ear­li­er Friday that she was step­ping aside to allow “a fresh set of lead­er­ship eyes” to look at how to fix the department’s problems.

“Last Saturday’s tragedy, as well as some oth­er recent inci­dents, have caused me to engage in deep reflec­tion,” she said in a state­ment, refer­ring to Damond’s death.

“Justine did­n’t have to die,” Harteau said Thursday of the shoot­ing, adding that the evi­dence sug­gests it should not have happened.

Cops star­tled by ‘loud sound’ before shoot­ing of Justine Damond

An attor­ney for Noor, who along with his part­ner Matthew Harrity has been placed on admin­is­tra­tive leave, said that his client feared an ambush when he was arriv­ing on scene.

Damond, in her pyja­mas, was unarmed, accord­ing to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating.

The BCA said Friday that Noor, a 31-year-old offi­cer with less than two years’ expe­ri­ence in the depart­ment, has refused to be inter­viewed about what happened.

Outrage over Damond’s death, felt in her native Sydney as well as across the U.S., comes as the nation­al con­ver­sa­tion on police-involved shoot­ings has cen­tered on the Twin Cities.

Damond’s fam­i­ly has hired the same lawyer as the fam­i­ly of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old cafe­te­ria work­er killed by an offi­cer at a sub­ur­ban St. Paul traf­fic stop last year.

St. Anthony offi­cer Jeronimo Yanez was acquit­ted of charges includ­ing manslaugh­ter last month.

Castile’s moth­er Valerie Castile attend­ed a ral­ly in sup­port of Damond’s fam­i­ly and met with her fiancé Don on Thursday night.

Minneapolis police also came under scruti­ny for the con­tro­ver­sial shoot­ing death of Jamar Clark in November 2015.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/minneapolis-police-chief-resigns-justine-damond-death-article‑1.3346120