A former US cop has bagged 12 years and six months for killing an unarmed Australian woman.
According to reports, the woman requested the former policeman to report a crime when she was shot dead.
The ex-cop, Mohamed Noor, shot the victim, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, as she tried to report a possible physical assault case behind her home in 2017.
While defending his action, Noor said he shot the woman out of fear of being ambushed by the woman.
He claimed he made the decision to shoot the woman after he heard a loud bang in the area and spotted the deceased raising her arm.
After he was sentenced on Friday, the officer seized the occasion to apologize for his actions that led to the death of the 40-year-old yoga instructor who was supposed to marry the following month.
He said:
“I caused this tragedy and it is my burden. I wish though that I could relieve that burden others feel from the loss that I caused. I cannot, and that is a troubling reality to me.”
However, there have been complaints from some quarters about the sentencing. Some sections of the Somali-American community that Noor was a part argued about partiality in the handling of the case.
They frown at how the cases of white police shootings that claim the lives of blacks are handled in the country.
The placard-carrying activists were outside the courthouse with placards with different signs such as “NOOR: Victim of Identity Politics.”
