Photo: Christian Monterrosa/AP/Shutterstock
Minneapolis interim police chief Amelia Huffman said at a Thursday press conference that Minneapolis Police Department SWAT team officers were attempting to execute a no-knock search warrant as part of a St. Paul murder investigation.
Huffman said the officer who shot Locke, identified as Mark Hanneman, was in a difficult position.
“The still shot shows the image of the firearm in the subject’s hands, at the best possible moment when the lighting was fully on him. That’s the moment when the officer 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,” she said.
Locke’s family has said that he had no criminal record and was legally permitted to carry a weapon. Locke was not named on the original search warrant, Huffman noted.
Christian Monterrosa/AP/Shutterstock
Members of Locke’s family were in attendance at Saturday’s protest in Minneapolis, which began outside of the Hennepin County Government Center. During the event, the victim’s father, Andre Locke, said he was upset about the narrative that police were searching for a murderer.
“I’m not one of those kind of parents [that says], ‘Oh no, that’s not my son. My son wouldn’t do anything like that. That’s not my kid.’ … That’s not the type of parents we are. We’re realistic,” said Andre. “We believe in right and wrong, bottom line. But I can tell you this, he did everything right. He listened to me.”
Andre added, “He was responsible, and he didn’t deserve to have his life taken the way that it was. Why couldn’t my son bury me? Why couldn’t my son live to see his 40th birthday? Why couldn’t my son Amir hold his mother and tell her that he loved her for the last time?”
The crowd then made their way to the 1st Precinct police station, where they repeatedly chanted Amir Locke’s name.
In November 2020, Minneapolis formalized a new policy requiring officers to announce their presence when conducting no-knock warrants. At the time, Mayor Jacob Frey said the policy would “limit the likelihood of bad outcomes,” according to theAssociated Press.
At Thursday’s press conference, Frey said the body camera video “raises about as many questions as it does answers” in the case, adding that investigators plan to find answers fast and “in transparent fashion.”
“What is particularly frustrating is the way the city seemed to try to package and publicize it as if they were actually banning no-knock warrants,” Jeff Storms, an attorney for Locke’s family, told PEOPLE this week. “It really doesn’t feel like Minneapolis is learning any lessons. It sounds like Minneapolis repeatedly tries to say the right things but there is no action or implementation to suggest there is change.”
On Friday, Attorney General Keith Ellison confirmed that he and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office will work with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s office to review the shooting.
“Amir Locke’s life mattered,” Ellison wrote in a statement on Friday. “He was only 22 years old and had his whole life ahead of him. His family and friends must now live the rest of their lives without him.”
Freeman said his office will work with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to ensure a thorough and complete evaluation. “Thereafter we will decide together, based on the law and evidence, whether criminal charges should be brought,” the attorney added.
source: people.com
