Minneapolis city officials released transcripts Wednesday of two 911 calls made by 40-year-old yoga instructor Justine Damond to report what she suspected to be a rape happening near her house shortly before she was killed by police officers outside her home.
“I can hear someone out the back and I, I’m not sure if she’s having sex or being raped,” Damond told a dispatcher in the first call. “And I think she just yelled out ‘help,’ but it’s difficult, the sound has been going on for a while, but I think, I don’t think she’s enjoying it,” Damond said.
Damond placed a subsequent call with 911 concerned that no police officers had yet arrived to check out the disturbance.
Two officers, Matthew Harrity and Mohammed Noor arrived shortly afterwards, pulling up in the alley behind the woman’s house with the lights of their squad car off.
The attorney for Minneapolis police officer Matthew Harrity told reporters Wednesday that it was “reasonable” to assume the officers believed they were being ambushed when his partner, Mohamed Noor, shot Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, through the driver’s side door of their cruiser Saturday night.
“It’s certainly reasonable to assume that any police officer would be concerned about a possible ambush under these circumstances,” attorney Fred Bruno stated at a press conference on Wednesday.
