Amir Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers serving a search warrant in a downtown apartment building on Feb. 2.
Police body camera footage shows Locke, 22, groggy from sleep under a blanket on a couch as a SWAT team enters the apartment with a key, without knocking, shouting “police search warrant” several times as well as “get on the ground” and “show me your hands.” Locke stirs while holding a gun and is shot nine seconds after the police enter.
A report from the Minneapolis Fire Department reveals that Locke was shot three times—two gunshot wounds to his chest and one on his wrist.
Police were investigating the homicide of Otis Elder, a 38-year-old father of two, who was killed on Jan. 10. Locke’s 17-year-old cousin was previously arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the homicide.
Locke was not the subject of the warrant. Police officer Mark Hanneman was identified as the officer who fired the fatal shots. He has not been fired.
Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong visited “The Karen Hunter Show,” to speak about the police slaying.
“They have a key, they come into the place, and it doesn’t seem like they even gave him a chance to identify himself. To put his hands up. To identify what’s going on,” Hunter says. “You know, when you’re awakened out of your sleep, you’re disoriented. He wasn’t given a chance to be a human being in that moment. And I’m really…we’ve seen this before, though. We’ve seen this before.”
Levy Armstrong agreed.
“Well, as you said, there is a lot going on. We actually just wrapped up a press conference here at City Hall in Minneapolis that included the centering of Black mothers and Black women’s voices, who were shaken by what happened to Amir locke. And who are connecting it to their own sons or their own loved ones and who are taking a stand and demanding justice, transparency and accountability from the Minneapolis mayor, as well as the interim chief of police,” Levy Armstrong responds. “The mayor issued a statement calling for a temporary moratorium on the use of no-knock warrants, and saying that they’re gonna look at the policy yet again. But they just changed the policy, supposedly, in November of 2020.”
Levy Amstrong says somebody was “asleep at the wheel,” when it came to rolling out the amended policy.
Watch the full interview below.
