MINNEAPOLIS – The execution of a warrant to search Justine Damond’s home has failed to shed any additional light on the circumstances leading up to her death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Alpha News previously reported that courts granted the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) permission to search the property of Justine Damond.
Now KSTP reports that law enforcement officials searched Damond’s home for blood, hair, guns, ammunition, knives, drugs, or writings. The BCA thought they might have been able to find something in Damond’s house that could have helped explain what transpired leading up to her death at the hands of Officer Mohamed Noor. Authorities ended up removing nothing from the home.
The Damond family’s attorney told KSTP that he believes the search was an appropriate step in the investigation.
Damond called police to report a potential sexual assault happening in an alley outside of her home. When police arrived she went up to the squad car, and Noor ended up pulling his gun, and shooting her once, through the car, and reaching across his patrol partner in order to do so. Noor has thus far refused to be interviewed by investigators.
A similar warranted search was conducted by BCA agents of Philando Castile’s home after he was shot and killed by police in Falcon Heights, reports the Star Tribune. However BCA agents did not search Jamar Clark’s home after he was killed by Minneapolis Police in 2015.
The warrant to search Damond’s home was granted at 5:38 a.m. on July 16, and officers arrived at the home at 6:30 a.m. to begin searching.
“At the time, investigators were unsure of the events leading up to her death,” BCA Spokeswoman Jill Oliveira told the Star Tribune. “As stated in the warrant, MPD officers involved in the incident were not providing information to investigators at that time.”
