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Family of slain Australian to repatriate body

The family of the unarmed Australian woman fatally shot by police in Minnesota plans to repatriate her body.

A woman places flowers at a makeshift memorial in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Justine Damond, an Australian woman shot to death by police Nancy Coune, administrator of the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community centre, places flowers and signs memorializing

Justine Damond's family told the Star Tribune newspaper they are still trying to understand the tragedy and are hoping for a speedy resolution to the investigation into the officer-involved shooting.

"All we want to do is bring Justine home to Australia to farewell her in her hometown among family and friends," the newspaper on Thursday quoted the family as saying in a statement.

Investigators probing the Saturday shooting have said little about the circumstances, except that one of the officers involved, Matthew Harrity, reported being startled by a loud noise just before Damond approached the police vehicle he was driving.

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Harrity's partner Mohamed Noor fired from the front passenger seat, striking Damond in the abdomen, according to the authorities.

The 40-year-old meditation instructor and life coach, who had called police to report sounds of a possible sexual assault, died at the scene.

"We are still trying to come to terms with this tragedy and we are struggling to understand how and why this could happen," the family statement said, adding that they hoped the investigation would conclude "as soon as possible."

Harrity's lawyer, Fred Bruno, suggested Wednesday that the officers may have feared an ambush -- a claim the US-based attorney for the Damond family strongly rejected as "ludicrous."

"She obviously was not armed, she was not a threat to anyone nor could she have reasonably been perceived to be," attorney Bob Bennett said Wednesday in an interview with the local CBS TV station in Minneapolis.

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He added that Damond's family may consider a civil suit.

Bennett recently represented the family of motorist Philando Castile in another high-profile police shooting case in Minnesota.

Castile was killed during a traffic stop last year, after informing Officer Jeronimo Yanez that he was carrying a gun, for which he had a legal permit.

Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter, spurring protests. The family received a $3 million civil settlement.

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