Minneapolis: The distinct Australian accent of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who was shot dead by a US police officer, rung out in a Minnesota court room as two phone calls of her reporting a possible sexual assault were played for jurors.

Posters of Justine Ruszczyk Damond are displayed at a news conference last year.Credit:AP

The sound of Ruszczyk's voice prompted an emotional response from her family members attending the trial on Wednesday, local time, who wiped back tears.

Ruszczyk's father, stepmother and brother were also visibly affected by graphic images of her autopsy and photographs of her body covered in a white sheet at the crime scene.

Prosecutors entered into evidence the summer pyjamas Ruszczyk was wearing on the night she died in July 2017. They included a pink T-shirt featuring an image of a koala.

Mohamed Noor, the police officer who shot Ruszczyk, a life coach and spiritual healer from Sydney's northern beaches, has been charged with two counts of murder and one of manslaughter.

John Ruszczyk was visibly emotional in court on Wednesday as prosecutors played two phone calls his daughter Justine made to 911 shortly before she died. Credit:AP

If found guilty he will be the first police officer in Minnesota's history to go to jail for shooting a civilian.

In Ruszczyk's first 911 phone call, which was played to the court, she said she could hear noises from someone at the back of her house.

"I'm not sure if she's having sex or being raped," she said.

"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."

Ruszczyk then called back around 10 minutes later to check that the officers had the right address.

Within minutes of the officers arriving on the scene she had been shot dead.

Ruszczyk's fiance Don Damond broke down in tears on the witness stand the previous day when testifying about the shock of discovering his wife-to-be had death in a police shooting.

In opening statements on Tuesday, Noor's lawyers said he and his police partner believed they were responding to a "classic ambush scenario" when the 33-year old shot Ruszczyk.

Defence attorney Peter Wold said the officers heard a loud thump or slap on the car before the shooting.

This helped explain why Noor believed it was necessary to discharge his firearm, Wold said.

Prosecutors countered that Ruszczyk's fingerprints had not been found on the officers' police car.

Noor's attorneys said that just because Ruszczyk's fingerprints were not identified on the car did not prove that she did not touch it.

The medical examiner who conducted Ruszczyk's autopsy testified that the fatal bullet went through her stomach, small intestines, cut through the iliac artery and stopped at the vertebrae.

He said he found 1.6 litres of blood in Damond's abdominal cavity, a significant amount for a woman who was only 170 centimetres tall.

The internal bleeding was so significant that not even quick medical intervention would have been likely to save her, the medical examiner said.

Toxicology tests showed there were no drugs or alcohol in Damond's system at the time of the shooting.

Judge Kathryn Quaintance was visibly angry at the end of proceedings on Wednesday when it was revealed that some potential witnesses had been listening to trial proceedings in an overflow room.

Source: Read Full Article