At the Noor trial (8)

I happily took the reserved Power Line seat for the first time yesterday at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor. If Wednesday’s testimony featured the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, as it mostly did, yesterday’s featured the Minneapolis Police Department. The prosecution introduced bodycam and squad car video of MPD officers who arrived at the scene.

For good narrative accounts of yesterday’s testimony and other evidence, please see the Star Tribune story by Chao Xiong and Libor Jany and the MPR report by Jon Collins and Riham Feshir.

Unfortunately, no video recorded what Noor had to say about the incident. Why? I don’t know. Indeed, Noor’s “escort officer” following the incident advised him in no uncertain terms not to say nuthin’. However, it’s not that he didn’t have some ‘splainin’ to do. As MPD homicide lieutenant Rick Zimmerman pungently testified regarding his reaction to the crime scene: “I didn’t see anything, and my first thought, frankly, was, ‘What the fuck? Why isn’t there something here?’”

Something, that is, that would explain what happened. Something like a weapon in the vicinity of the decedent — the barefoot young lady in her pajamas.

In total, four officers testified yesterday. The prosecution elicited testimony regarding the streetlight illumination of the crime scene from each of the officers. Lieutenant Zimmerman was particularly strong on this point. Everybody could see everybody else. No problem.

One more point I should have made yesterday. Noor shot Justine in the abdomen on her left side. The bullet traveled from front to back and lodged next to her spine at L5-L6. As I think about that, Justine must have been standing near the driver’s side of the Harrity/Noor squad car at the time she was shot and facing it. For me. that makes the shooting even more difficult to understand.

The defense had yet to cross-examine Officer Jesse Lopez at the end of the day yesterday. He is tied up this morning and will return for cross-examination out of order.

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