Sadness, Questions Still Linger 1 Week After Damond Shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- This story isn't going away anytime soon.
There are still many questions people on the other side of the world want answers to, and there's still a whole lot of sadness.
There's a new memorial in Justine Damond's honor. Instead of marking the scene of her death, this one is where she spent part of her life, the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community.
Kim, one of Justine's students says she is going to concentrate on mirroring love.
"Justine teaches and taught me think outside the box, be open for possibilities and don't walk in fear," Kim said.
It may be hard for some not to live in fear after Justine was killed by a police officer.
A story that has rocked her home country of Australia. Journalist Alexis Daish was working in L.A. when she and photojournalist Adam Bovino got the call. They work with 9 News Australia.
"We hit the ground running because we knew how much of a massive story this was back home," Daish said.
She explains why the country is so gripped.
"It's an Aussie woman killed in a foreign country. I think the thing that adds to it, though, is the country she was killed in is a place that's known for guns and for police who are perhaps deemed too trigger happy," Daisch said. "So I think it's a combination of those two and you can contrast that with Australia, people rarely, rarely get shot by police in Australia, it just doesn't happen."
What also doesn't happen? Scenes like what happened at Minneapolis City Hall, when protesters called loudly for Mayor Betsy Hodges to resign.
"They're American people fighting for an Australian life lost and I think that's really important for our viewers to see back home and something that I've really focused on in my reporting because in Australia I don't think people are as willing to protest as they are here," Daish said.
In Australia, where Justine's family has been mourning together in the last week, guns are rare.
"The only people that you really hear of having guns are the criminals who have illegal firearms or farmers who have guns legally," Daish said.
So she says her country marvels at how a life lived in such peace ended in such violence.
Alexis told WCCO another thing she has seen this week is a graciousness. Minnesotans have told her she is welcome here and to keep digging for answers.
