Hundreds of people gathered in Minneapolis on Saturday to demand justice for Amir Locke, 22-year-old man who was shot by police last week, calling for the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and officer Mark Hanneman.
On Friday, the National Guard was activated in the state of Minnesota in order to help the Twin Cities in case of any civil unrest following the death of Locke in Minneapolis and the ongoing federal trial in St. Paul involving three officers in the George Floyd’s death.
A Minneapolis police officer on Wednesday fatally shot Locke, 22, as cops executed a no-knock search warrant.
Locke’s father, Andre, spoke to a crowd Saturday, ‘This is not easy, to have to bury your son,’ according to video posted to Twitter.
He said Locke’s mother was ‘so overwhelmed with grief, disbelief, sorrow, everything that you could imagine that a mother feels when she loses her baby.’
Protesters also called for Hanneman, the officer who shot Locke, to be prosecuted.
A demonstrator holds a “Justice for Amir Locke” sign during a rally in protest of the killing of Amir Locke, outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota
On Thursday, the mayor of Minneapolis released body camera footage showing the police shoot and kill Locke who was curled up on his couch.
Graphic bodycam footage shows Minneapolis police enter 22-year-old Amir Locke’s (pictured) apartment while executing a search warrant in a homicide investigation
The 54-second clip shows a SWAT officer use a key to enter the apartment followed by at least four others in uniform and protective vests, time-stamped at about 6:48am.
As they enter, they repeatedly shouted, ‘Police, search warrant!’ They also shout ‘Hands!’ and ‘Get on the ground!’ The video shows an officer kick a sectional sofa, and Locke begins to emerge from under a blanket, holding a pistol.
Three shots are heard, and the video ends.
The city also included a still from the video showing Locke holding the gun, his trigger finger laid aside the barrel. The top of Locke’s head is barely visible.
The footage was released after more than 36 hours of unanswered questions and calls for transparency over the shooting.
The Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement Wednesday that Locke pointed a loaded gun ‘in the direction of officers.’
Bodycam footage shows an officer using a key to unlock the door and enter, followed by at least four officers in uniform and protective vests
An incident report said he had two wounds in the chest and one in the right wrist.
On Friday, Locke’s parents said their son was ‘executed’ by a Minneapolis SWAT team that woke him from a deep sleep, and that he reached in confusion for a legal firearm to protect himself.
Andre Locke and Karen Wells, described him as respectful, including to police, and said some of their relatives work in law enforcement.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who said Locke´s family was ‘just flabbergasted at the fact that Amir was killed in this way’ and disgusted at how the Wednesday morning raid was conducted.
They said he was law-abiding, with no criminal record, and had a permit to carry a gun.
‘They didn’t even give him a chance,’ Crump said, adding that it was shocking that Minneapolis police had not learned from the death of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in a botched raid at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020, leading to calls for an end to no-knock warrants nationwide.
Interim Chief Amelia Huffman confirmed in a news conference after the video was released that Locke isn’t named in the warrants. She said it isn’t clear how or whether Locke is connected to the homicide investigation, which she said is under the control of the St. Paul Police Department.
She said that the city had both knock and no-knock warrants.
Mayor Jacob Frey said the video ‘raises about as many questions as it does answers’ and said the city was pursuing answers ‘as quickly as possible and in transparent fashion’ through investigations, including one by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The officer who shot Locke was identified as Mark Hanneman, who was hired by the department in 2015.
Records released by the city showed three complaints, all closed without discipline, but gave no details. Data on the website of the citizen group Communities United Against Police Brutality showed a fourth complaint, in 2018, that remains open. No details were given.
Following Wednesday’s incident, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey imposed an immediate moratorium on the request and execution of no-knock warrants in the city.
This moratorium makes an exception for instances where there is ‘an imminent threat of harm to an individual or the public,’ Frey’s office stated Friday.
U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, called Locke’s death a murder, and criticized local police and officials for their handling of the incident.
‘Amir Locke had barely opened his eyes when he was executed by a Minneapolis police officer,’ Omar tweeted Friday, blaming his death on the ‘violent, unchecked, and unreformed behavior of our city’s police.’
