In Minneapolis, officials continue to investigate the shooting death of a 22-year-old Black man during a no-knock police raid this week.
via: People
Minneapolis released police body camera footage of the deadly shooting of a 22-year-old man killed when officers entered an apartment serving a no-knock warrant.
Amir Locke was shot early Wednesday morning as he was trying to sit up on a couch in his friend’s living room, where he lay with a gun.
At a news conference Thursday, Minneapolis interim police Chief Amelia Huffman said the warrant was tied to a homicide investigation in St. Paul and that Locke was not named in the original search warrant.
“At this point it is unclear if or how he’s connected to St. Paul’s investigation, but they are continuing to work dedicatedly on that case,” she said.
“These events unfold in seconds but the trauma is long-lasting,” said Huffman. “A young man lost his life, and his friends and family are in mourning.”
During a Friday morning news conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump criticized the way the raid was conducted, stating that Locke’s family was “just flabbergasted at the fact that Amir was killed in this way,” Associated Press reports. “They didn’t even give him a chance.”
“My son was executed on 2-2 of 22,” Locke’s mother Karen Wells said, according to AP. Locke’s family said he had no criminal record and had a legal permit to carry a weapon.
Jeff Storms, an attorney for Locke’s family, tells PEOPLE that loved ones described him as a “motivated, ambitious, kind kid who everyone really, really liked.”
Earlier Friday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said he asked Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office to work with his office to review the shooting.
Sending our condolences to Amir Locke’s family.
