'I Feared For My Life': Docs Reveal Interviews With Officer Who Fatally Shot Amir Locke
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On the heels of the announcement that the Hennepin County Attorney and Minnesota Attorney General would not be filing charges against the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Amir Locke earlier this year, new interview quotes from the officer who fired the fatal shots have been released.
On Feb. 2, SWAT team members executed the no-knock warrant on behalf of St. Paul police at an apartment inside Bolero Flats in downtown Minneapolis. The warrant was in connection with the fatal shooting of Otis Elder in January.
Body camera footage shows an officer use a key to unlock the front door of an apartment rented by the brother of murder suspect Mekhi Camden Speed, 17, who is Locke's cousin.
Officers began yelling "police" and "search warrant" as they passed through the door. Seconds later they encountered Locke, who had been sleeping under a blanket on a couch. Locke sat up and lifted a handgun before officer Mark Hanneman shot him three times. About 10 seconds passed from the moment officers entered the apartment until Locke was shot. Locke died minutes later.
"The threat to my life and the lives of my teammates was imminent and terrifying," Hanneman said. "I feared for my life and the lives of my teammates ... I felt in this moment that if I did not use deadly force myself, I would be killed."
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman on Wednesday said that there was "insufficient admissible evidence" to file criminal charges. Ellison and Freeman said they were bound by judicial standards to not file charges they can not prove.
Following that announcement, Locke's mother said she was "disgusted," and added, "You may have been found not guilty but in the eyes of me, being the mother who I am, you are guilty. I am not going to give up."
In the documents released after Ellison and Freeman's announcement, Hanneman is quoted saying that Locke kept moving and struggling, so he tackled him on the ground until other officers moved Locke's gun out of reach.
"There was no opportunity for me to reposition myself or retreat," Hanneman said. "There was no way for me to de-escalate this situation."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was criticized in the aftermath of Locke's death over misleading claims he made during his re-election campaign months earlier that he banned no-knock warrants, because there was actually an exemption for warrant executions where there's an "imminent threat of harm."
The mayor announced in early March that he's proposing a policy to ban all no-knock and no-announcement warrants. It was implemented Tuesday evening. There are still exceptions in the policy.
