NJG Staff Report
Details are slowly emerging in the shooting death of Amir Locke, 22, who was killed by Minneapolis Police during a no-knock warrant raid on Wednesday morning, Feb. 2
What is known is that police quietly entered the apartment at 6:48 a.m., using a key and immediately began shouting “police – search warrant” several times as well as “hands” and “get on the ground”.
One of the officers kicked the couch where Locke was asleep, and as Locke started to come out from under the blanket, he was reported by police displaying a gun. Ten seconds later, Amir Locke was dead, after police fired at least three times in response. According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, Locke died of multiple gunshot wounds.
His parents, Andre Locke and Karen Wells, said on Friday that their son was “executed” by the Minneapolis SWAT team, when they woke him from a deep sleep. They added that he reached in confusion for his gun, for which he had a concealed carry permit, to protect himself.
The apartment in which Locke was asleep was not his, but his cousin’s, and the police raid was in response to a homicide investigation. But Locke was not named nor has the cousin been identified as involved in the homicide case. No-knock warrants allow the police to enter property without first announcing their presence and are primarily used when there is concern that evidence will be destroyed or officers will be put in danger.
The family has hired civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who also represented the family of George Floyd killed by Minneapolis police in May 2020.
Crump said in a statement that as in “the case of Breonna Taylor, the tragic killing of Amir Locke shows a pattern of no-knock warrants having deadly consequences for Black Americans. This is yet another example of why we need to put an end to these kinds of search warrants so that one day, Black Americans will be able to sleep safely in their beds at night”.
