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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Minneapolis police officer will not face charges in the shooting death of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man the officer shot and killed during a no-knock raid inside a downtown apartment earlier this year.
According to public records, Officer Mark Hanneman fired the shots that killed Locke. Body-worn camera footage will be posted online Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said.
Following weeks of investigation, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension sent its final case report to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to review for possible charges. The decision came down Wednesday morning, and was jointly announced by Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The two prosecutors say there was “insufficient admissible evidence” to file criminal charges, and said they are “not allowed to evaluate the case from the perspective of the victim.”
“Specifically, the State would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota’s use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer Hanneman. Nor would the State be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal charge against any other officer involved in the decision-making that led to the death of Amir Locke,” the joint statement said.
Detailed in a 44-page joint report, prosecutors say an objectively reasonable officer in Hanneman’s position would have perceived an “immediate threat of death or great bodily harm that was reasonably likely to occur, and an objectively reasonable officer would not delay in using deadly force.”
The joint statement said it was not the role of both offices to evaluate whether a no-knock warrant was appropriate.
“[Locke] should be alive today, and his death is a tragedy. Amir Locke was not a suspect in the underlying St. Paul criminal investigation nor was he named in the search warrants. Amir Locke is a victim. This tragedy may not have occurred absent the no-knock warrant used in this case,” the statement said.
“One thing Amir was not, Amir was not a suspect,” Ellison said. “Our investigation found that he had no role in the homicide that brought the police to the apartment.”
No charges will be filed in the death of Amir Locke.https://t.co/8p5u6HfIgj pic.twitter.com/nMhCmv7za5
— Hennepin County Attorney's Office (@HennepinAtty) April 6, 2022
The decision was announced after Freeman and Ellison met with Locke’s family Wednesday morning.
“They expressed frustration with no-knock warrants. They believe if a no-knock warrants weren’t used Amir Locke would be here today,” Freeman said.
Ellison said this case highlights the need to put no-knock warrants under close scrutiny.
“The area of no-knock warrants needs reform. There is very broad discretionary latitude,” Ellison said. “(They are) not particularly safe for officers, either. It’s appropriate to investigate and come up with a policy that works.”
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On Feb. 2, SWAT team members executed the no-knock warrant on behalf of St. Paul police at an apartment inside Bolero Flats. The warrant was in connection with the fatal shooting of Otis Elder in January.
A SWAT team member unlocks the apartment door seconds before Amir Locke’s fatal shooting (credit: City of Minneapolis)
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 grabbed a handgun before Hanneman shot him three times. About 10 seconds passed from the moment officers entered, until Locke was shot. Locke died minutes later.
Minneapolis Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman said Locke was not named in the original search warrant.
Since his death, family and community members have denounced the use of no-knock warrants, calling his death an “execution.” At Locke’s funeral, his mother stood at the pulpit declaring that Minneapolis police “are going to pay.”
“It took me 10 hours of labor to push him into this world. And on Feb. 2, 2022, those thugs that represent the MPD executed my baby boy, beautiful baby boy, in less than nine seconds,” she said. “When you go to bed at night, I want you to see his face. When you wake up in the morning, I want you to see his face.”
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.”
“Language became more casual, including my own, which did not reflect the necessary precision or nuance. And I own that,” Frey said.
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.
Speed was charged in Elder’s murder in mid-December.
Source: CBS
