Hundreds took to the plaza outside of the Hennepin County Government Center Thursday afternoon in support of Mohamed Noor, the former Minneapolis police officer who's scheduled to be sentenced Friday for the 2017 shooting death of an unarmed woman.
Abbas Noor, the brother of the former officer, told the gathering the facts about the case prove that race did play a part in the conviction.
"I need only to point to the words of Amy Sweasy, the prosecutor, when she said 'her whole blonde hair, pink T-shirt, that was a threat to you,'" he said. "Had it been my mother in that alley, Amy Sweasy would never had said 'her whole blackness, her hijab, that was a threat to you?"
Abbas spoke about the parents that raised them.
The Austrailian woman was shot and killed in the alley behind the south Minneapolis home where she was living after calling 911 to report what she thought was a possible sexual assault.
Defense attorneys believe that Noor should not serve prison time.
"They'll argue that rather being a punitive at this point, that Mr. Noor is never going to repeat this type of violation," said courtroom observer Marsh Hallberg. "That we're better off to honor her through public service, and through short stints of jail every year on her death to bring remembrance of it to Mr. Noor."
Noor is the first Minneapolis police officer convicted after shooting someone while on duty.