The police officer accused of murdering the Australian life coach Justine Damond-Ruszczyk in a Minneapolis alley is planning to recreate the fatal shooting when the moon enters the “same phase” this week.

Mohamed Noor, who has left the police force, has asked a district court judge for access to a Minneapolis squad car for Friday night’s exercise.

Noor’s legal team has determined that the moon will be in the same phase as on 15 July last year when, just before midnight, Noor allegedly shot across his partner in their police car and struck Damond in the stomach.

Damond called police after hearing a woman’s screams in the alley and, when Noor’s squad car arrived, she approached his partner’s open window. She was dressed in her pyjamas.

Noor faces second- and third-degree murder charges at a trial in Minneapolis on 1 April.

“The defense wishes to be allowed access to a squad car for independent examination,” Noor’s lawyer, Thomas Plunkett, wrote in a court filing. “The moon is set to be in the same phase on 12-28-2018, as it was on 7-15-2017, so access to a squad on 12-28-2018, would be most helpful.”

The lawyer noted that the car Noor was in on the night of the shooting had not been preserved. The request is for another car “to independently gather information, make measurements and allow testing and analysis”.