Minneapolis police chief resigns after Australian woman's shooting

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(Reuters) – Minneapolis police chief Janee Harteau resigned on Friday at the request of the city’s mayor, who said that she had lost confidence in Harteau following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Australian woman.

The death of Sydney native Justine Damond, 40, from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen fired through an open window of a police patrol car, has outraged her relatives and the public in Australia. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called it “shocking” and “inexplicable.”

Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a statement that she and Harteau agreed during discussions on Friday that Harteau would step aside.

“As far as we have come, I’ve lost confidence in the Chief’s ability to lead us further – and from the many conservations I’ve had with people around our city, especially this week, it is clear that she has lost the confidence of the people of Minneapolis as well,” Hodges said in her statement.

“For us to continue to transform policing — and community trust in policing — we need new leadership at MPD,” she added.

Damond, who had made Minneapolis her home and was engaged to be married, had called police about a possible sexual assault in her neighborhood just before midnight on Saturday. She was shot as she approached the driver’s side of the patrol car.

Justine Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, from Sydney, is seen in this 2015 photo released by Stephen Govel Photography in New York, U.S., on July 17, 2017. Stephen Govel/Stephen Govel Photography/Handout via REUTERS

Harteau’s resignation comes a day after she told reporters during her first news conference following Damond’s death that the shooting violated department training and procedures and that the victim “didn’t have to die.”

“Last Saturday’s tragedy, as well as some other recent incidents, have caused me to engage in deep reflection,” Harteau said in her statement. “Despite the MPD’s many accomplishments under my leadership over these years and my love for the city, I have to put the communities we serve first.”

Hodges said in a statement that she would nominate the police department’s assistant chief, Medaria Arradondo, as police chief. The police department’s website on Friday evening had already been updated to show Arradondo, who joined the department in 1989, as the chief.

Harteau, who was Minneapolis’ first female police chief, said in her statement that she rose through the ranks during three decades with the department.

The officer who fired the fatal shot, Mohamed Noor, has refused to be interviewed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is conducting the investigation.

The police department said on Friday that bureau investigators interviewed a person who was bicycling in the area immediately before the shooting and stopped at the scene and watched as the officers provided medical assistance to Damond. No further details were provided.

Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler

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