Amir Locke Killing: Car Caravan Of Protesters Travels To Home Thought To Belong To MPD Chief
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Demonstrators traveled through Minneapolis in a car caravan Sunday evening to demand change after a police officer shot and killed Amir Locke last week in a downtown apartment.
The 22-year-old man died last Wednesday morning during a no-knock raid at the Bolero Flats apartment building. He was shot within 10 seconds of a Minneapolis Police Department SWAT team entering the apartment -- with the use of a key -- while executing a search warrant in connection to a St. Paul police homicide case. MPD Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman confirmed last Thursday that Locke was not named in the original warrant.
As in Saturday's protest in downtown Minneapolis, which drew thousands, demonstrators are asking for three things: They want Officer Mark Hanneman, who fatally shot Locke, to be fired and criminally charged; for Interim Police Chief Huffman to be fired; and for Mayor Jacob Frey to resign.
The caravan eventually stopped outside of a home near Lake of the Isles that is believed to belong to Huffman. No one reportedly came out of the residence.
Frey imposed a moratorium Friday on both requests for, and executions of, no-knock warrants following Locke's death. While that's in place, the mayor and police will work with experts who helped shape Breonna's Law -- a ban imposed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020 following the death of Breonna Taylor during a botched no-knock raid.
Frey and former Police Chief Medaria Arradondo updated the department's no-knock policy in late 2020, stipulating that officers must announce their presence before crossing the door's threshold. Body camera footage released last Thursday of the deadly encounter with Locke showed that SWAT team members announced themselves while crossing the threshold.
Locke is seen in the footage grabbing a gun before he is shot -- a weapon that his family says he had a license to carry, and which he purchased for protecting himself during his food delivery job.
