Police in Minnesota are under fire after serving a no knock warrant and fatally shooting a Black man. Wednesday morning the department’s SWAT team executed a no knock warrant related to a homicide investigation in a downtown Minneapolis apartment.
Reportedly Amir Locke was asleep and was holding a firearm, which his family’s lawyer says was legally owned, when he was shot and killed by the police 9 seconds after they entered.
The 22-year-old ‘s parents claim Locke was “executed” after he was startled from a deep sleep and reached for a legal firearm to protect himself.
The incident has brought back the discussion of no knock warrants and the death of Breonna Taylor who was shot in Kentucky during a no knock warrant entry nearly two years ago.
According to reports, Mayor Jacob Frey’s moratorium to ban almost all no knock warrants, comes one day after footage of the police bodycam showed officers entering in the apartment without knocking and an officer kicking the couch where Locke was sleeping.
The ban would only allow the warrants for cases of imminent danger according to Frey’s office.
Locke was not named in any of the search warrants and the family’s lawyer said, “he was not even a target.” His mother Karen Wells said her son was a law abiding citizen who “did everything he was supposed to do.”
They said he had for protection because he worked in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area as a driver for a food delivery service.
The Washington Post reports, the police department identified the officer who shot Locke as Mark Hanneman, whom joined the force in 2015 and started working on the SWAT team in 2020.
“Personnel records released by the city show he had been the subject of three complaints since his hiring, all closed without discipline.”
He has since been placed on administrative “paid” leave.
Officials said the Hennepin County attorney will work with the Minnesota Attorney General to review the fatal shooting.
