74 Seconds podcast: The shooting of Justine Ruszczyk

Don Damond is comforted outside his home by Valerie Castile.
Valerie Castile, Philando Castile's mother, comforts Don Damond, Justine Ruszczyk's fiance, during a march in Damond's south Minneapolis neighborhood after Ruszczyk's death. Both Castile's son and Damond's fiance were shot and killed by Minnesota police officers.
Aaron Lavinsky | Star Tribune via AP

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In July 2016, police officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. Yanez has been charged with manslaughter. Reporters from MPR News will follow the case, beginning with the traffic stop, in a new podcast called "74 Seconds."

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Seventy-four seconds is the amount of time that elapsed between the moment Yanez turned on his squad car lights to the moment he fired the seventh and final shot into Castile's car.

Episodes launched May 22, and our coverage continues after the trial: On the podcast, on the radio and on our website at mprnews.org/74seconds.

The shooting of Justine Ruszczyk

On July 15, the Twin Cities had its third high-profile police shooting in less than two years.

Justine Damond
Justine Ruszczyk
Courtesy Stephen Govel

Justine Ruszczyk, who also used the surname Damond, called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her south Minneapolis home that night.

The responding officers — Mohamed Noor and Matthew Harrity — pulled into the alley behind Ruszczyk's house with their squad lights off.

Harrity told investigators that he had heard a loud noise, then Noor fired his gun from the passenger seat of the vehicle, hitting Ruszczyk, who had approached the car, in her pajamas.

She died at the scene.