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Justine Damond’s frantic calls to police released

Justine Damond’s frantic phone calls to US police reveal the Australian life coach was not sure if a woman behind her Minneapolis home was being raped or having loud sex.

Jul 20, 2017, updated Jul 20, 2017
Justine Damond.

Justine Damond.

Transcripts of the 40-year-old former Sydneysider’s two 911 calls were released by the Minneapolis Police Department on Wednesday.

Damond was beloved by family and friends in Australia and the US for her desire to help people, but her desperate calls just before midnight on Saturday tragically led to her death when a responding policeman, Officer Mohamed Noor, shot her in the stomach.

Damond’s first call was made at 11:27pm.

“I can hear someone out the back and I, I’m not sure if she’s having sex or being raped,” Damond, who moved to the US to be with her American fiance and set up a meditation and life coach business, told the police operator.

The call continued with the operator asking for Damond’s address.

Damond then described how the screams were coming from the back of her property.

“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 told the operator.

The operator then confirmed with Damond that she can only hear, not see, the woman.

“Yeah,” Damond replied.

“It sounds like sex noises, but it’s been going on for a while and I think she tried to say ‘help’ and it sounds distressed.”

The operator then assured Damond help was on the way.

At 11.35pm Damond called 911 again and the operator recognised her as “Justine”, the previous caller.

“You’re hearing a female screaming? ” the operator asked.

“Yes, along behind the house,” Damond said.

“Officers are on the way there,” the operator said.

Soon after the police squad car containing Noor and his partner Officer Matthew Harrity, who both had less than two years’ experience in the police force, pulled into the alley behind her premises with the vehicle’s lights off.

Harrity told investigators on Tuesday he heard a loud sound that startled him just before Damond, dressed in her pyjamas and holding a mobile phone, came to his driver’s side car window.

He said Noor, from the passenger front seat, shot across him and through the open window, fatally hitting Damond in the stomach.

Noor has declined to be interviewed by investigators.

– AAP/Reuters

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