MINNEAPOLIS — Mohamed Noor, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted for fatally shooting Justine Ruszczyk Damond in 2017 in the alley behind her home, is scheduled to be released from incarceration next week.
Noor, 36, received a new sentence in October of nearly five years in prison, and that set his day of release for Monday, instead of several years later under a previous sentence vacated by the state's high court.
Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance imposed Noor's ultimate sentence of 4 ¾ years in prison for second-degree manslaughter after the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a third-degree murder conviction against him for killing Damond, who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her southwest Minneapolis home.
The state Supreme Court decision vacated a prison term of 12 ½ years that Noor had been serving.
Upon his release from custody, Noor will serve the balance of his time on supervised release, according to state Department of Corrections (DOC) records. His sentence runs until Jan. 24, 2024.
Noor originally began serving his time in at Oak Park Heights prison in Minnesota, but was transferred on July 11, 2019, to a facility in North Dakota for his own safety, authorities said.
State officials have yet to say where Noor will be released Monday, when his incarceration ends. DOC records do say he is not currently at one of its facilities.
Defendants in Minnesota are routinely moved to supervised release after serving two-thirds of their prison sentences. Noor has served 29 ½ months since he entered prison in May 2019, and must serve another 8 ½ months before he is eligible. Under his first sentence, Noor would have had to serve about six more years before becoming eligible for supervised release.
Jurors convicted Noor in April 2019 of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His attorneys appealed the murder count, which was upheld in February by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. They then asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to review that decision.
The high court agreed with Noor's attorneys that because of how the statute is written, the murder count cannot apply when a defendant's actions are directed at a specific person. The state Supreme Court vacated Noor's conviction and sentence, and sent his case back to court for resentencing.
