Amir Locke protesters seek to oust acting police chief
MINNEAPOLIS — A caravan of vehicles drove through Minneapolis demanding justice in the death of Amir Locke, the 22-year old Black man who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police as officers served a no-knock search warrant.
Sunday’s caravan of about 50 vehicles was organized by the Racial Justice Network and other police accountability groups.
Some in the caravan then gathered in a neighborhood outside what’s believed to be the home of interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman. They chanted the names of Locke as well as Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed by Kentucky police during a no-knock raid in 2020.
They also called for Huffman’s resignation, the Star Tribune reported.
“We’re asking for her job,” said activist Toussaint Morrison over a microphone outside the home, “because it seems like the only time they pay attention is when it affects their jobs or their money. But we pull up when it affects our lives.”
The gathering follows a march Saturday that drew hundreds of demonstrators to the streets of Minneapolis. The protesters met outside the Hennepin County Government Center before marching through downtown streets.
Locke was fatally shot Wednesday when a SWAT team entered a downtown Minneapolis apartment without knocking.
A police bodycam video shows an officer kicking the couch where Locke’s family said he was sleeping. On the video, he is seen wrapped in a blanket, beginning to move, with a pistol in his hand just before an officer fires his weapon.
Locke’s parents, Andre Locke and Karen Wells, say their son was “executed” after he was startled from a deep sleep and reached for a legal firearm to protect himself.
Activists were angered at a Police Department statement Wednesday that called Locke a “suspect” — even though police later said a search warrant didn’t name Locke as such. The department took similar criticism for its initial representation of George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, when its first statement said Floyd died after a “medical incident during a police interaction.” Bystander video quickly told another story — Floyd died while in handcuffs with a police officer’s knee on his neck.