What Happened To Amir Locke?

A no-knock warrant led to the death of Amir Locke.

What happens when someone breaks down your door and you the homeowner have the right to shoot the intruder... but the intruder fires back and they failed to say they are the police. The homeowner is dead and the police are safe. So what happened when the subject is dead and they realize they went into the wrong house?

Amir Locke becomes the latest victim of the Minneapolis Police. Nearly two years since the George Floyd murder, the city has focused on changing the narrative. Only months after convicting the dirty Brooklyn Center cop who killed Daunte Wright. Now another person in the Twin Cities is killed by the police and the nation is talking.

Be warned there is graphic images and video.

As #BreonnaTaylor showed us, no-knock warrants have deadly consequences for innocent law-abiding Black people! @MinneapolisPD executed a no-knock warrant yesterday at 6:48am, killing Amir Locke while he was wrapped in a blanket on the couch. Now we demand #JusticeForAmirLocke!! pic.twitter.com/FLKqR0eszP

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) February 4, 2022

Press conference gets shut down at first difficult question. pic.twitter.com/nbRCGhjEuM

— Hamish too. (@AbolishNz) February 4, 2022

Who was Amir Locke? His dad described him as an entrepreneur, a change-maker, and a law-abiding citizen. Amir did everything RIGHT, yet he was still unjustifiably killed by Minneapolis PD! #JusticeForAmirLocke pic.twitter.com/WTAqRZPDic

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) February 5, 2022

“When they put the narrative out there that he was a murder…I couldn’t. I couldn’t.” Says Andre Locke, Amir Locke’s father. pic.twitter.com/TNEsZdNaPz

— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) February 5, 2022

The controversial no-knock warrant only leads to death for either party. The person or the police. 

Locke was sleeping when the Minneapolis Police SWAT team entered the home on a no-knock warrant.

Within seconds, the law put him down as soon as he rolled out his firearm.

He was sleeping on the couch.

The 22-year-old Black man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by the Minneapolis Police Department, in the U.S. city of Minneapolis. A police SWAT officer shot Locke inside a resident unit of an apartment building while executing a no-knock warrant during a homicide investigation. The conduct of the police officers, and justification for the shooting, are under review.

At about 7:00 a.m. on February 2, 2022, police officers unlocked and opened the door to an apartment in downtown Minneapolis pursuant to a no-knock warrant. Mark Hanneman had been a police officer in Minneapolis since 2015. He is a member of the Minneapolis Police Department SWAT team. Prior to working with the police department, Hanneman was employed as a police officer in Hutchinson, Minnesota, starting in 2010.

Police body camera footage reviewed by reporters "showed several officers quickly rushing into the apartment at the same time they announced their presence", according to The Washington Post, while interim Minneapolis police chief Amelia Huffman stated officers "loudly and repeatedly announced police search warrant before crossing the threshold into the apartment" and then later encouraged people to "make their own assessment" of the footage. Police body camera footage shows Locke was lying on a couch while wrapped in a blanket.

Locke sat up and turned toward the officers while holding a gun. He was then shot twice in the chest and once in the wrist by Hanneman. The shooting occurred at approximately 6:48 a.m., nine seconds after police entered the apartment.

Lock was treated at the scene and transported to Hennepin Healthcare, where emergency medics determined that Locke did not have a pulse, pronouncing him dead at 7:01 a.m.

Interim Minneapolis police chief Amelia Huffman stated that both a knock and no-knock warrant were obtained as part of a St. Paul Police Department homicide investigation so that the SWAT team could make its best assessment. Several suspects were named in the investigation, though Locke was not named in the original warrant. Huffman said it was "unclear" if Locke was connected to the St. Paul investigation. Body camera footage was released to the public after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and members of the Minnesota House of Representatives called for the immediate release of the footage. 

Amir Locke's parents demand justice.

Based on the footage, Huffman stated that "the officer had to make a split-second decision to assess the circumstances" and to determine an appropriate course of action to protect himself and other officers.

Huffman also stated, "Ultimately, that decision of whether that threshold was met will be examined by the county attorney’s office that reviews this case."

Attorney general of Minnesota Keith Ellison announced his office will work with the Hennepin County attorney's office in its review, stating, "Amir Locke's life mattered."

A man listed on the search warrant, who court records show was living in the apartment, had threatened officers during a 2018 arrest. Apparently, they're going to play "Well he shouldn't be there in the first place" excuse. They are going to justify the shooting by saying that he was in the suspect's home and he had a gun. Again, it appears that Black people having lawful rights to own firearms to protect themselves is illegal in the minds of cops, Republicans and conservative agitators.

Will protesting change policies?

Yes

No

Every community in the United States will eventually have a legacy. A legacy of tragedy. Gun violence and COVID-19 will affect your town, your family and your life. So I don't want to hear that bullshit about how gun reform is taking away your rights to own firearms. 

I don't want to hear that protesting against police killing people of color is hate on cops in general. I don't want to hear talk about the coronavirus being a myth. When you hear folks say "gun rights," what they really mean is that its white privilege. 

I don't want to hear folks say masks and vaccine mandates impede their freedoms. It prevents a deadly outbreak from spreading. If you want to die from the coronavirus, that's on you.

I don't want to hear the shit about guns saving lives. Cause a bullet does not have eyes and it's always likely gonna hit a target. These folks seem to not get it. These incidents are a tragic part of American history.

The website Officer Down is a memorial to those who were killed in the line of duty. Those who don't get their names mentioned in the junk food media. Also the website the National Gun Violence Memorial also keeps record of the many individuals killed by gun violence. 

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GUN VIOLENCE IS THE NUMBER ONE PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES!