Family of Australian killed by US police demands answers

CHICAGO: The family of an Australian woman killed by US police after making an emergency call is complaining that authorities have left them in the dark about how the shooting happened.
Scrutiny intensified Tuesday into the death of Justine Damond, who was killed late Saturday by a police officer responding to her emergency call of a possible assault in an alleyway near her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Community leaders and family members spoke out even as the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the shooting, said little about the case.
The bureau planned to release more information after interviewing the two officers involved in the incident, both of whom were on standard administrative leave.
The medical examiner's office conducting the autopsy said Damond, a 40-year-old meditation and life coach who had moved to Minneapolis to marry her fiance, died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Damond had changed her last name from Ruszczyk after leaving Australia, where her father John Ruszczyk on Tuesday called for justice.
"Justine was a beacon to all of us. We only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death," he said, reading a prepared statement during an emotional news conference.

'So many questions'
Damond had called Minneapolis police Saturday around 11.30 pm to report "what she believed was an active sexual assault occurring nearby", her fiance Don Damond told a news conference Monday.
"Sadly, her family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived."
Authorities said they found no weapons at the scene of the shooting, confirming reports that Damond was unarmed.
"I understand why so many people have so many questions at this point," Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau said late Monday in her first public statement about the case.
"I have many of the same questions and it is why we immediately asked for an external and independent investigation."
Harteau has requested an expedited probe.
Damond was reportedly shot while in her pajamas, after walking to the driver's side of a police car to talk to one of two responding officers, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, which quoted three anonymous sources.
In addition to why Damond was shot, authorities are probing why the officers' body cameras were turned off during the incident. All Minneapolis police are outfitted with such cameras.
Officer 'a caring person'
The officer who shot Damond was identified as Mohamed Noor, a 31-year-old Somali American who joined the force in 2015. His attorney Tom Plunkett released a statement saying the officer took "these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling".
"Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathises with the loss others are experiencing," Plunkett said, adding that the ongoing investigation prevented the officer from saying any more about the incident.
The weekend shooting was the latest involving police to rock the Midwestern state. Most of those have seen African Americans shot by mostly white police.
Congressman Keith Ellison, who represents Damond's home district in the US House of Representatives, tied her case with others' such as motorist Philando Castile, who was killed last year during a traffic stop.
Police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter in Castile's case, prompting demonstrations.
"We need to confront the reality of so many unarmed people killed by the same officers who swear an oath to protect us," Ellison said in a statement.
"Justine's death shows no one should assume 'officer-involved shootings' only happen in a certain part of town or to certain kinds of people." — AFP