On Feb. 2, 2022, Minneapolis police officers shot and killed Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, in a no-knock raid that has once again sparked anger over racial justice and police killings not two years after police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Police body camera footage of the raid released by the Minneapolis Police Department shows an officer quietly using a key to unlock the apartment where Locke was.
The SWAT team then storms the apartment while multiple officers yell “Police! Search warrant!” along with a mix of orders at Locke to get on the ground and show his hands.
One officer kicks the couch where Locke was lying under a blanket, Locke begins to move while holding a handgun, then police shoot at Locke at least three times before the video abruptly ends.
The encounter in which police entered the apartment and shot Locke lasted 10 seconds, and it’s unclear if Locke was aware police had entered the apartment. The raid took place at approximately 6:48 a.m.
Amir Locke had barely opened his eyes when he was executed by a Minneapolis Police officer. He was 22 years old. And now, because of the violent, unchecked, and unreformed behavior of our city’s police, his life has been taken.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 4, 2022
Authorities said the SWAT team was carrying out a search warrant involving a homicide, but that Locke was not named as a suspect in the warrant.
A lawyer representing Locke’s family, Ben Crump, said in a press conference that Locke was not a resident of the apartment and was staying there temporarily with a cousin.
Crump compared the shooting of Locke to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who police shot and killed during a no-knock raid by Louisville police officers in March 2020.
Crump said, “If we learned anything from Breonna Taylor it is that no-knock warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law-abiding Black citizens.”
In the United States a no-knock warrant allows police officers to enter premises without first knocking and announcing their presence or purpose for entering. The warrants are typically issued by a judge when police fear that knocking and announcing would lead to the destruction of evidence or compromise the safety of officers.
However, no-knock warrants have come under scrutiny after repeatedly leading to deadly exchanges between police and confused residents being taken by surprise.
Another lawyer representing Locke’s family, Tony Romanucci, said Locke had no idea who was entering the apartment at the time of the raid. Romanucci said, “Had they announced who they were and why they were there, this tragedy could have been averted.”
One day after police released the body camera footage of Locke, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the city would be suspending the use of no-knock warrants until further notice.
Mayor Frey said in a statement that the city would review its no-knock policy with the experts who helped create “Breonna's Law,” which banned the use of no-knock warrants in Louisville, Kentucky.
