Mohamed Noor was born in war-torn Somalia, fled to Kenya as a five-year-old refugee with his family before settling in the United States where he overcame racism and a lack of English to become a celebrated Minneapolis police recruit.
Noor (33) fired the fatal bullet.
"Good people sometimes do bad things," Judge Kathryn Quantance told Noor as he stood before her in a Minneapolis court on Friday.
Noor was convicted by a Minneapolis jury of Ms Ruszczyk Damond's third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April and Judge Quantance showed little mercy.
She sentenced Noor to a 12-and-a-half-year prison term.
The sentence was announced at the end of an emotionally-charged hearing where the fallen officer spoke to Ms Ruszczyk Damond's American fiance and Australian family.
Noor, who admitted he took the life of "a perfect person", said he had wanted to meet with Mr Damond and Ms Ruszczyk Damond's father John, brother Jason and other family members but was prevented from doing so.
He issued an apology and told how he wrote the family a letter from jail.
"I have wanted to sit with Mr Damond and tell him about what happened and to extend my condolences to him for the last two years as well as to Ms Ruszczyk's other families," Noor said in a voice trembling with emotion.
"The process of the courts and the lawyers (are) so cruel in the way it makes us behave to each other. The system is de-humanising."
The public gallery was filled with tears as a video of Ms Ruszczyk Damond's life was played.
Tears also flowed when Mr Damond, who was set to marry his "soul mate" in a romantic ceremony in Hawaii just weeks after the tragedy, addressed the court.
It was in the form of a letter he wrote to Ms Ruszczyk Damond.
Mr Damond's heart-wrenching words included how they were planning to have a baby.
"I miss you every day - every moment," Mr Damond said.
Ms Ruszczyk Damond's Australian family members were not in court but their impact statements were read.
Her father requested the maximum sentence and described how "Justine's death has left me incomplete".
The murder count carried a maximum 25 years' prison and the manslaughter charge 10 years.
Judge Quantance's 12-and-a-half-year term matched the guideline sentence and the length proposed by prosecutors.
The judge rejected calls by Noor's lawyers for him to serve an unusual sentence of one week in a low-security jail workhouse on the date of Ms Ruszczyk Damond's death and her birthday during the duration of his parole.
"The act may have been based on a miscalculation, but it was an intentional act," the judge told Noor.
Ms Ruszczyk Damond graduated with a veterinary degree from the University of Sydney, but switched careers to became a life coach, met Mr Damond at a retreat, fell in love, took his surname before their wedding and she moved to Minneapolis.
It was her desire to help people that led to her murder.
Ms Ruszczyk Damond was home alone in Minneapolis just before midnight on July 15, 2017 when she heard a woman screaming in an alley behind her house. She called 911.
When Ms Ruszczyk Damond approached Noor's police vehicle in the alley he shot across his partner and out the driver's side window, hitting the Australian who was dressed in pyjama pants and a pink t-shirt adorned with a mother and baby koalas.
Noor, who has a young son, claimed he was startled.
"The moment I walked around and saw Miss Ruszczyk dying on the ground, I felt horror," Noor said.
Ms Ruszczyk Damond's family filed a $US50 million ($NZ75 million) civil lawsuit against Minneapolis and the city agreed to pay $US20 million.
Members of Minneapolis' large Somali expat community protested the sentence outside court, claiming Noor was treated differently to white officers who shot minority members of the public.
Noor's supporters held placards including "Black Muslim Immigrant Guilty" and "Noor: Victim of Identity Politics."
Noor's lawyers Thomas Plunkett and Peter Wold indicated they would appeal.
"We are not done fighting for Mohamed Noor," the lawyers said.
