When Mohamed Noor was assigned to patrol the Minneapolis Police Department’s fifth district last May, the news was met with nearly ubiquitous acclaim from both the city’s Somali community and from local officials.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote on Facebook that Noor’s appointment to the large and ethnically diverse district south of downtown was “a wonderful sign of building trust and community policing at work” and dozens of Somali-Americans showed up the Karmel mall to shake the officer’s hand.
Now 14 months later – and just days after Noor shot and killed 40-year-old Justine Damond Saturday night in an alley of one of the city’s leafy neighborhoods – the mayor is calling on the police officer to speak out about the incident and the mood at the Karmel mall is less jubilant.
“He’s a well-known man in the Somali community, he was well-respected,” Ali Hassan, a Somali-American who owns a popular café in the mall, told Fox News. “It’s heartbreaking news and has really affected the Somali community.”