A sleeping 22-year-old man was shot and killed shortly after police burst into the Minnesota apartment where he was startled awake by officers conducting the ‘no-knock’ raid in search of evidence believed to be unrelated to the shooting victim.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he will be partnering with the Hennepin County Attorney’s office to investigate the death of Amir Locke, who was shot dead by officers with the St. Paul Police Department, who were executing a ‘no-knock’ warrant in search of another person.
In the early morning hours Wednesday, Minneapolis police officers placed a key in an apartment door before bursting through the doorway yelling “Police! Search warrant!”
In the seconds that followed, a Black man named Amir Locke — apparently asleep and shown to be holding a gun upon awakening — was shot and killed.
Locke was shot by Officer Mark Hanneman, a seven-year veteran of the Minneapolis police force who had temporarily been assigned to the SWAT team on Sunday.
SWAT teams were sent to the Bolero Flats apartment building in connection with a St. Paul Police Department homicide investigation.
The St. Paul Police Department said it had asked the Minneapolis police department to carry out three search warrants at the Bolero Flats building, and that all the warrants were signed by a Hennepin County judge.
The shooting by an officer on the SWAT team, in a city that came to represent ground zero for the police reform movement, raised questions from Locke’s family and others about the city’s warrant policy.
Many details remain opaque and many questions remain unanswered after the city released 14 seconds of body camera video that showed officers killing the 22-year-old man who they woke up during the raid.
It’s not been made public yet what or whom police were searching for at the apartment where Locke was killed.
The victim’s family members and their attorney have said Locke was not the subject of the search warrant.
It’s been reported that evidence in the St. Paul homicide case was removed from the property following the shooting, but police refused to comment on that as the investigation is ongoing.
Locke was wrapped in a blanket and appeared to have been sleeping on the couch when police entered the apartment, and the bodycam footage shows he did have a gun. His family said he had a permit to carry the firearm and had no criminal record.
Locke’s father said his son was a DoorDash driver who obtained the gun to protect himself.
The Minneapolis Police Department falsely said in a news release that Locke pointed the gun “in the direction of officers.”
In the bodycam footage, it appears the gun was never pointed at officers, but rather is pointed down towards the floor.
The bodycam footage also shows that Locke did not have his finger on the trigger.
Locke is seen moving beneath his blanket, in the dark and on the couch, when an officer fires three shots. There is no verbal warning he has a gun, nor do officers tell him to drop a weapon.
Officers were in the apartment less than 10 seconds before Locke was shot.
Minneapolis police said he was hit three times: Twice in the chest and once in the wrist. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled he died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s public information report lists two other “involved” individuals whose address is listed as the Bolero Flats building — a 22-year-old and a 23-year-old. One more individual is listed under “other,” without an age or address.
Locke is listed on that report as “deceased” and he does not have an associated address.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is handling the investigation, as is usually the case in police shootings.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday evening, Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman argued that there was a moment where Hanneman “had to make a split-second decision, to assess the circumstances and to determine whether he felt like there was an articulable threat, that the threat was of imminent harm – great bodily harm or death – and that he needed to take action right then to protect himself and his partners.”
“Ultimately, that decision, whether that threshold was met will be examined by the county attorney’s office that reviews this case,” said Huffman.
Civil rights attorney and community activist Nikema Levy Armstrong, who serves as the co-chair of the city’s new Commission on Community Safety, emotionally interrupted the news conference to accuse Huffman and Mayor Jacob Frey of “white-washing” Locke’s killing.
A gun-rights advocacy group called for an independent investigation into Locke’s killing, after learning that the victim was a lawful gun owner at the time of his death.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, an organization that champions the right to keep and bear arms, released a statement condemning the use of no-knock warrants and said this death was “completely avoidable.”
“Amir Locke had a permit to carry, which isn’t required to carry in your own home, but it just goes to show that he was, in fact, a law-abiding citizen and not prohibited from possessing firearms, so any citizens could have ended up in this situation,” said Rob Doar, the group’s vice president.
“So now every day we’re entering into a situation where law enforcement officers are or may encounter somebody who is lawfully armed inside their home,” Doar said. “The use of no-knock warrants is counteractive to that right to self-defense.”
The Gun Owners Caucus said Philando Castile also acted responsibly when he told an officer he had a gun on him before he was killed during a traffic stop in 2016.
Castile, a 32-year-old African American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, after merely informing the officer that he had a licensed firearm.
“How did nine seconds of a search warrant end up with a man’s life?” questioned Al Flowers Jr. at a news conference at a church in south Minneapolis.
Rev. Ian Bethel said that Huffman met with the group Unity Community Mediation Team on Thursday morning, a day following the deadly shooting. He said he appreciated that effort, but there needs to be more accountability and transparency.
“This city of Minneapolis needs to wake up and come to the realization that we are in trauma,” he said. “A young man questioned about why he’s laying there with a gun—that’s because we’re in trauma. That’s evidence of trauma.”