'American Nightmare': How Australian Media Covers Damond's Death

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Why did police shoot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a bride-to-be from Australia who moved to a quiet, upscale south Minneapolis neighborhood to live with her fiancé?

It’s a question that has mystified Minnesotans for nine months, but still there are no clear answers.

The bewilderment doesn’t stop at the state's borders. In Damond’s native Australia, residents find the details surrounding her death downright baffling.

"This is a shocking killing. It is inexplicable," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said of the shooting. "I mean, how can a woman out in the street in her pajamas seeking assistance from the police be shot like that?" he asked.

The unarmed, 40-year-old meditation coach was shot the night of July 15 minutes after she made a 911 call to report a possible rape.

When news of Damond’s death broke, the Daily Telegraph — an Australian national newspaper — led its front page with news of the shooting, calling it an "American Nightmare."

"A SYDNEY woman just weeks away from her wedding was shot dead by police in her adopted new hometown in America's Midwest after call 911 for help,” read the paper’s top story.

"To most Australians, the recent surge in police shootings across the US was obviously concerning but at the same time a remote issue, far from Australia's shores. That view has changed now with the fatal shooting by police of Sydney woman Justine Ruszczyk Damond in the suburb of Fulton, Minneapolis.”

That same day, the front page of Australia’s Courier Mail also expressed horror over Damond’s death:

"Shot dead in her pyjamas: Why on Earth did US cops kill Aussie who called for help."

The Australian media’s coverage of the shooting didn't stop there. Aussie journalists have continued to follow Damond’s case, with every new development making headlines.

The shooting and subsequent coverage have confirmed many Australians’ beliefs about the risks associated with America’s gun culture.

"The country is infested with possibly more guns than people," Philip Alpers, a gun policy analyst at the University of Sydney, told the Associated Press. "We see America as a very risky place in terms of gun violence — and so does the rest of the world.”

Fears over America’s gun culture abroad aren’t just a product of international media narratives. No other developed country has a police force that kills at the same rate as officers in the United States.

American police kill more people in days than other countries do in years, according to an analysis by the Guardian. Between 1992 and 2011, Australian cops fatally shot 94 people. Police in the U.S. killed 97 in March of 2015.

The population of the U.S. is roughy 14 times the size of Australia yet America has hundreds of times more fatal police shootings, according to the Guardian.

Since 2015, Minnesota has seen three deadly police shootings that made international headlines, including Jamar Clark and Philando Castile. Last summer, the string of high-profile deaths prompted protesters to install unauthorized street signs warning motorists and pedestrians of "easily startled" Twin Cities police.

What’s understood as an "American nightmare" in Australia is believed to be an all-too common occurrence in Minnesota.

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Photo by Stephen Govel, used with permission