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Fmr. officer who killed Justine Damond appears in court

Mohamed Noor is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the July 15 killing of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

MINNEAPOLIS - A former Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an Australian woman last summer after she called 911 appeared in court Tuesday, spending just minutes for a procedural hearing.

Mohamed Noor is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the July 15 killing of Justine Damond.

In court Tuesday Noor did not speak as Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Amy Sweasy said that prosecutors have been providing evidence to the defense as part of discovery. Sweasy told Judge Kathryn Quaintance that no plea negotiations are underway.

Noor's attorney has filed documents indicating Noor will plead not guilty, but no plea was officially entered Tuesday.

An omnibus hearing can cover a host of issues, including evidentiary and procedural matters, but Tuesday's appearance did not even end with a scheduling of Noor's next appearance.

"This was a completely normal formality that you would see every day with a case," said defense attorney Michael Brandt with Brandt Criminal Defense in Anoka.

Brandt offered some context to Tuesday's proceedings, saying both sides are sharing evidence and need more time to go through it all.

Prosecutors say Noor was in a squad car's passenger seat when he shot Damond through the open driver's side window after she approached the vehicle. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has said there was no evidence Noor encountered a threat that justified using deadly force.

"The Defense has got a specific statute that allows an officer to use deadly force if they believe that they are going to protect themselves or somebody else from death or great bodily harm," Brandt said.

Although, Brandt adds, he believes the State will argue that Noor should've assessed the threat before firing past his partner and through the open driver's side window, as noted in documents by the BCA.

"They may call into question what he did, whether that was according to training," Brandt said, "to try and build their case to show - no, this was unreasonable, a reasonable police officer wouldn't have done exactly as he did."

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