WASHINGTON – Authorities in the US city of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered in 2020, published a body-cam video yesterday showing the police shooting of a 22-year-old African American man.
According to the police, Amir Locke was shot on Wednesday by officers who were executing a search warrant on the apartment he was in, after Locke pulled a gun from beneath a blanket.
The total time between the officers’ entrance and the shots fired was less than ten seconds.
Locke was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The local Star Tribune newspaper reported that Locke was not named in the search warrant, but said he was related to a suspect in the investigation of a homicide.
The family’s attorneys said in a statement yesterday that he “legally possessed a firearm,” and had no past criminal record.
His mother told the Star Tribune: “We want justice for our son.”
In the video, an officer uses a key to unlock the door and then a group of officers enter while shouting “Police, search warrant!”
Locke, who was on a couch, starts to rise from beneath a blanket, with a gun in his hand, when police fire.
The family has retained lawyer Ben Crump, who has represented multiple Black victims of police violence, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, whose killings in 2020 sparked nationwide protests.
Crump will hold a virtual press conference today with the family, they said in a statement.
In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Two months earlier, Breonna Taylor was killed after police entered her home after midnight and her boyfriend, thinking they were intruders, fired on them.
Conversations on the police radio prior to the Minneapolis events Wednesday suggest that the police had planned a “no-knock” entrance, the Star-Tribune reported.
“Like the case of Breonna Taylor, the tragic killing of Amir Locke shows a pattern of no-knock warrants having deadly consequences for Black Americans,” said Crump in a statement.
“We will continue pushing for answers in this case so that Amir’s grieving family can get the closure they deserve,” he added. – AFP, February 4, 2022
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