Court documents: Mohamed Noor to plead not guilty in Damond shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, who is charged in the fatal shooting of an Australian woman in south Minneapolis, plans to plead not guilty, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

In March, Noor was charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. Noor will be pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense and reasonable force.

At this time, the defense will only be calling upon one witness at the trial, Private Investigator William O'Keefe. 

“He’s an investigator that’s used by a lot of defense attorneys so he’s used in a lot of cases, I’ve used him,” said Bob Sicoli, a veteran defense attorney who is not involved in the Noor case.

Sicoli says disclosure isn’t uncommon with these types of cases. 

“My guess is that he’s probably had something to do with the investigation, even relating to the self-defense, reasonable use of force,” said Sicoli.

Last summer, Noor fatally shot Justine Damond after she called police to report a possible assault. Noor was sitting in the passenger seat of his patrol car when the shooting happened.

Sicoli says that this is a case that will present challenges for both the prosecution and the defense.

“In the cases I’ve represented officers on usually, there’s some person grabbing for the officer’s gun or the person has a gun themselves, and that is unprecedented in this case,” he said. “Now it doesn’t mean that Noor can’t win the case, obviously, but that’s a little bit different of a fact because this was a woman who was in her pajamas late at night.”

There is no video of the actual shooting as the officers’ body cameras were not activated. 

Noor is next expected to appear in court on May 8.