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Excerpt:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/18/after-media-identifies-officer-in-minneapolis-shooting-somali-community-braces-for-backlash/?utm_term=.3370d9d90992
After Minneapolis officer in police shooting is named, Somali community braces for backlash
By Katie Mettler July 18 at 7:39 AM
Don Damond, right, fiance of Justine Damond, makes a statement to the media as his son Zach Damond, left, comforts him. (Craig Lassig/European Pressphoto Agency)
When Mohamed Noor joined the Minneapolis police force and was assigned to patrol the city’s southwest corner, the Somali community there — the nation’s largest — threw a party for him to celebrate.
He was the first Somali American officer to serve in Minneapolis’s fifth precinct and one of fewer than a dozen Somali American officers in the department. His presence on the squad brought Somali activists some pride and reassurance at a time of Islamophobia in America and nationwide racial tension stoked in part by shootings of black people by white police officers.
Now that same Somali community is bracing for a backlash against Noor that has already begun.
On Monday, multiple media outlets named Noor as the officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman in the city’s popular Fulton neighborhood over the weekend, an incident that has grabbed global attention and thrust Minneapolis into yet another uproar over police violence.
Officials have not publicly confirmed the officer’s name.
Tom Plunkett, an attorney who said he to represent Noor, said in a statement that the officer “extends his condolences” to those mourning 40-year-old Justine Damond’s death and “takes their loss seriously.”
“We would like to say more, and will in the future,” Plunkett said. “At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.”
Although Plunkett did not respond to requests to explicitly confirm that Noor fired the shot that killed Damond, several Somali leaders in Minneapolis said in interviews with The Washington Post that they were aware of the officer’s involvement.
“There is no question that he is the officer,” Somali activist Omar Jamal told The Post. “We knew this right after the shooting, but we didn’t want to release the name.”
The Minneapolis Police Federation declined to comment and referred questions to Noor’s attorney. A spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department directed inquiries to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the agency investigating the shooting, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
What we know about the Minneapolis police shooting that killed a bride-to-be
Australia native Justine Damond, 40, who was set to marry her fiance in August, was fatally shot by a police officer on Saturday, July 16. Few details have been revealed about the incident. Here's what we know. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner announced Monday night that Damond — identified by her birth name, Justine Ruszczyk — died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen and ruled the death a homicide. She was set to marry her American fiance Don Damond next month and had already been using his last name.
Witnesses at the scene Saturday night said that the officer who fired his gun appeared to be Somali, Jamal said, so he and others in the community began contacting all the Somalis in the department. They knew the shooting took place in the fifth precinct, where Noor is the only Somali officer.
“We came to know that, ‘Oh gosh, that’s him,’ ” Jamal said. “Then the word spread fast.”
[After Minneapolis police officer fatally shoots Australian woman, her relatives plead for answers]
The report stoked fear among Somalis in the Twin Cities, who have worked for decades to become part of the city’s fabric. There are now Somalis on the police force, the city council and in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But the largely Muslim population of Somali Americans in the region still face Islamophobia and innuendo about terrorism.
“They fear this will be just another event used to create animosity toward the Somali community,” Mohamud Noor, executive director at the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, told The Post.
Already, hateful posts criticizing Islam and sharia law are filling social media in response to the police shooting. Several far-right blogs featured sensational headlines that blamed the officer’s ethnicity for the deadly use of force.
Other Somali officers in the police department are “nervous,” Jamal said.
“They’re not talking at all,” he said. “You can feel the pressure, because you know, the difference now is ‘one of you guys did it.’ ”
“The fact that the police involved in the shooting is Somali makes it a different matter,” he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/18/after-media-identifies-officer-in-minneapolis-shooting-somali-community-braces-for-backlash/?utm_term=.3370d9d90992
After Minneapolis officer in police shooting is named, Somali community braces for backlash
By Katie Mettler July 18 at 7:39 AM
Don Damond, right, fiance of Justine Damond, makes a statement to the media as his son Zach Damond, left, comforts him. (Craig Lassig/European Pressphoto Agency)
When Mohamed Noor joined the Minneapolis police force and was assigned to patrol the city’s southwest corner, the Somali community there — the nation’s largest — threw a party for him to celebrate.
He was the first Somali American officer to serve in Minneapolis’s fifth precinct and one of fewer than a dozen Somali American officers in the department. His presence on the squad brought Somali activists some pride and reassurance at a time of Islamophobia in America and nationwide racial tension stoked in part by shootings of black people by white police officers.
Now that same Somali community is bracing for a backlash against Noor that has already begun.
On Monday, multiple media outlets named Noor as the officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman in the city’s popular Fulton neighborhood over the weekend, an incident that has grabbed global attention and thrust Minneapolis into yet another uproar over police violence.
Officials have not publicly confirmed the officer’s name.
Tom Plunkett, an attorney who said he to represent Noor, said in a statement that the officer “extends his condolences” to those mourning 40-year-old Justine Damond’s death and “takes their loss seriously.”
“We would like to say more, and will in the future,” Plunkett said. “At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.”
Although Plunkett did not respond to requests to explicitly confirm that Noor fired the shot that killed Damond, several Somali leaders in Minneapolis said in interviews with The Washington Post that they were aware of the officer’s involvement.
“There is no question that he is the officer,” Somali activist Omar Jamal told The Post. “We knew this right after the shooting, but we didn’t want to release the name.”
The Minneapolis Police Federation declined to comment and referred questions to Noor’s attorney. A spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department directed inquiries to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the agency investigating the shooting, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
What we know about the Minneapolis police shooting that killed a bride-to-be
Australia native Justine Damond, 40, who was set to marry her fiance in August, was fatally shot by a police officer on Saturday, July 16. Few details have been revealed about the incident. Here's what we know. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner announced Monday night that Damond — identified by her birth name, Justine Ruszczyk — died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen and ruled the death a homicide. She was set to marry her American fiance Don Damond next month and had already been using his last name.
Witnesses at the scene Saturday night said that the officer who fired his gun appeared to be Somali, Jamal said, so he and others in the community began contacting all the Somalis in the department. They knew the shooting took place in the fifth precinct, where Noor is the only Somali officer.
“We came to know that, ‘Oh gosh, that’s him,’ ” Jamal said. “Then the word spread fast.”
[After Minneapolis police officer fatally shoots Australian woman, her relatives plead for answers]
The report stoked fear among Somalis in the Twin Cities, who have worked for decades to become part of the city’s fabric. There are now Somalis on the police force, the city council and in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But the largely Muslim population of Somali Americans in the region still face Islamophobia and innuendo about terrorism.
“They fear this will be just another event used to create animosity toward the Somali community,” Mohamud Noor, executive director at the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, told The Post.
Already, hateful posts criticizing Islam and sharia law are filling social media in response to the police shooting. Several far-right blogs featured sensational headlines that blamed the officer’s ethnicity for the deadly use of force.
Other Somali officers in the police department are “nervous,” Jamal said.
“They’re not talking at all,” he said. “You can feel the pressure, because you know, the difference now is ‘one of you guys did it.’ ”
“The fact that the police involved in the shooting is Somali makes it a different matter,” he said.