Hundreds Attend Memorial for Victim of Police Shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The fiance of Justine Damond, an Australian woman shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer, has told more than 200 mourners "it felt like a privilege to love Justine."
Don Damond spoke Friday night at the memorial at a stage at Lake Harriet in southwest Minneapolis. He shared with the crowd some of the optimism expressed in three or four pages of words she would free-write every morning.
He said, he had "immense gratitude for being the one she chose." They were scheduled to be married next week.
The father of an Australian woman shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer says at her public memorial service that "you have stolen our daughter and ripped her from our arms."
John Ruszczyk choked back tears as he talked about the pain of the loss of his daughter, Justine Damond. She was planning to get married next week.
Ruszczyk spoke at the memorial Friday night at a band shell at Lake Harriet in southwest Minneapolis.
He said: "Justine my daughter was killed by a bullet fired by an agent of the state. I don't understand. I should have been on a plane to her wedding but we were flying to her funeral."