Australian Story: Nov 8

Australian Story tonight looks back at the 2017 shooting of Justine Ruszczyk by US police officer Mohamed Noor.

Earlier this year Noor successfully appealed his 12 year murder conviction and last month was re-sentenced to five years for manslaughter.

ABC speaks to her father John Rusczcyk and stepmother Maryan Heffernan tonight.

This episode is introduced by ABC journalist and former Washington correspondent Conor Duffy.

Australian Story first spoke to the Ruszczyk family four years ago following the shooting death of their daughter Justine by US police officer Mohamed Noor.

In their first in-depth interview since his re-sentencing last month, they have a message for the people of Minneapolis – keep up the fight against police brutality.

In 2017, Justine Ruszczyk was shot dead as she approached Noor’s police car following a 911 call she’d made to report a suspected sexual assault.

The senseless death devastated her family and sparked a storm of community protests about the use of excessive police force in the state of Minnesota which exploded again last year after George Floyd’s murder.

“The officers feel they can do this sort of thing with impunity. It’s essentially the same thing they’ve been doing since I’ve got out of law school in 1976,” says the family’s Minneapolis-based attorney, Robert Bennett.

Justine’s family was determined her death wouldn’t be in vain and in 2019, after weeks spent inside a Minneapolis courtroom, they witnessed a historic outcome when Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to twelve years in prison.

Shortly after, the family settled a civil case against the state with a record $20 million payment.

But earlier this year Noor successfully appealed his murder conviction and last month the Minnesota Supreme Court re-sentenced him to five years for manslaughter.

For Justine’s family it’s been a bitter pill to swallow after years spent fighting to hold a US police force accountable for the death of their daughter.

“The murder of Justine was an obscenity, and it’s something civil society should not accept, and a police officer has to be held accountable and has to pay the penalty. And I don’t think he’s paying a fair penalty,” says her father, John Rusczcyk.

Despite their personal disappointment the Ruszczyk family are hopeful that change is coming.

“I think there’s a lot more people who are pushing for change, stemming from Justine and stemming from George Floyd. Hopefully that that’s, you know, reached the tipping point where there will be change,” says Justine’s stepmother, Maryan Heffernan.

In this updated episode, Australian Story talks to the Ruszczyk family about their hard-fought battle for justice and the emotional toll of the past four years.

8pm tonight on ABC.