Minnesota AG to review killing of Black man by police

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will join the review of the fatal shooting of a Black man by Minneapolis police, authorities said Friday, shortly after police released body camera footage that showed SWAT team officers entering an apartment and shooting the 22-year-old man, who was wrapped in a blanket and had a gun in his hand.

Amir Locke was killed in the shooting just before 7 a.m. Wednesday. Police said Locke pointed a loaded gun “in the direction of officers.” An incident report said he had two wounds in the chest and one in the right wrist.

Activists swiftly denounced the killing, noting that Locke wasn’t named in a search warrant.

“The mother in me is furious and sick to my stomach,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a prominent civil rights attorney who confronted the city’s mayor and interim police chief late Thursday night after the video’s release. “Amir never had a chance to survive that encounter with police.”

The body camera video released late Thursday showed the footage in slow motion and at regular speed. It shows an officer using a

key to unlock the door and enter, followed by at least four officers in uniform and protective vests, timestamped at about 6:48 a.m.

As they enter, they shout, “Police, search warrant!” They also shout, “Hands!” and “Get on the ground!” The video shows an officer kick a sofa, and Locke, who was wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, begins to move, holding a pistol. Three shots are heard, and the video ends.

The city also released a still from the video showing Locke holding the gun, his trigger finger along the side of the barrel.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Friday that he asked Ellison to help review the case for possible charges. Ellison’s office led prosecutions of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s killing and of former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter in the shooting of Black motorist Daunte Wright.

Ben Crump, an attorney for Locke’s family, says officers “didn’t even give him a chance.”

Crump said Locke’s family is “just flabbergasted at the fact that Amir was killed in this way.”

Later Friday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on no-knock warrants.

Frey said the moratorium is effective immediately.

MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP A Minneapolis police bodycam image shows Amir Locke in a blanket on a couch holding a gun moments before he was fatally shot by police as they executed a search warrant Wednesday.