Amir Locke’s family sues Mpls. for ‘no-knock’ warrant killing

The family of Amir Locke, the 22-year-old Black man shot and killed by Minneapolis police during a predawn raid last February, is suing the city and the SWAT officer who pulled the trigger, alleging that the no-knock warrant that resulted in his death is consistent with the city's "custom, pattern and practice of racial discrimination in policing."

The 35-page federal lawsuit filed on behalf of his parents, Karen Wells and Andre Locke, contends that officers violated Locke's constitutional rights when they burst through the apartment door without properly announcing themselves, willfully ignoring the danger posed to any innocent civilians inside.

"Amir Locke didn't even have a chance," civil rights attorney Ben Crump said at a Friday morning news conference. "He was practically in slumber when the police did what they do so often with Black people – they shoot first, and ask questions later."

The lawsuit demands accountability amid renewed public outrage against police killings nationwide, including the fatal beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month. It was filed on the one year-anniversary of Locke's death, observed Thursday with a gathering at the Minnesota State Capitol where Locke's relatives called on the attorney general to reopen the criminal investigation into the officers involved.

City officials declined to comment on the pending litigation beyond a short statement, saying they "will review the complaint when they receive it." The Police Officers' Federation of Minneapolis could not be reached for comment.

In an emotional statement before the media, Andre Locke vowed to keep fighting so that Amir's death "will not be swept under the rug," and will be impactful in eliminating no-knock warrants across the country.

"You will be the face of justice for many and you will save lives," Andre Locke said of his son, wiping away tears. "This is not in vain. You stood for something in America. Your legacy will remain for each of us."

Attorneys did not specify how much the family will seek in compensation.

On the morning of Feb. 2, 2022, members of the Minneapolis SWAT team stormed into the Bolero Flats apartment building downtown in search of evidence related to a St. Paul homicide investigation. Footage from one of the officers' body cameras showed police quietly unlocking the apartment door with a key before barging inside, yelling "Search warrant!" as Locke lay under a blanket on the couch. When an officer kicked the couch, Locke stirred and emerged holding a pistol in his right hand. Officer Mark Hanneman fired three times, striking Locke in the face, chest and arm.

Locke, a DoorDash delivery driver and aspiring rapper who legally possessed the gun, was not the subject of the search warrant and had no known criminal record.

"Any reasonable officer would have understood that Amir needed an opportunity to realize who and what was surrounding him, and then provide Amir with an opportunity to disarm himself," the suit reads. "Hanneman failed to give Amir any such opportunity...Instead, Hanneman fired three shots while Amir was still covered in a blanket on a couch where Amir had been resting peacefully only 10 seconds before the SWAT entry."

Hanneman told investigators that, in that moment, he feared for his life and needed to use deadly force. Two months later, then-Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Attorney General Keith Ellison declined to file charges against Hanneman, because they didn't feel they could get a conviction under state law.

The civil suit alleges that Locke was killed during the execution of a no-knock warrant, despite the fact that he never raised the weapon in the direction of any officer nor placed his finger on the trigger. Locke's killing led to a moratorium on the controversial practice, after St. Paul police initially applied for a standard search warrant in connection with an ongoing homicide investigation, but they were forced to resubmit the request after Minneapolis police insisted on a no-knock operation.

Officers were sent to the building looking for Locke's 17-year-old cousin Mekhi Speed, a St. Paul homicide suspect who lived in a different unit with his mother. Locke was staying with Mekhi's older brother, Marlon, and Marlon's girlfriend at the time law enforcement raided both units. None of the three occupants were named on the warrant and police never offered evidence that suggested any were connected to the case.

Locke's grieving relatives consider that sloppy investigative work.

"If you boot up or suit up a SWAT [team], you're supposed to know who is on the other side of that door when you're going up in there," said Wells, Locke's mother."

No-knock warrants, which allow police to enter a property without announcing their presence beforehand, have been banned in a number of cities across the country after they resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians. Minneapolis restricted the use of such unannounced raids in 2020, as part of a series of reforms in the wake of Floyd's death. At the time, Mayor Jacob Frey claimed he banned no-knock warrants for "all but exigent circumstances".

But court and email records suggest the practice not only continued until Locke's death but persisted at a pace that far surpassed that of standard knock-and-announce entries. An MPD spokesman informed the mayor's office that the police department conducted 87 no-knock warrants in the year since his original policy change, according to the lawsuit.

"We should have learned from Breonna Taylor," attorney Jeff Storms said, referencing the Louisville, Ky. woman killed in a similar no-knock raid by police more than a year before Locke. "And instead of acting on that foreseeable risk of harm, they engaged in a level of political placating of everybody locally, and told us that there was a ban when there wasn't."

In the four months leading up to Locke's killing, "Minneapolis executed no-knock warrants only in homes of color, predominantly in Black homes, and not once in the homes of non-Hispanic Whites," the suit claims. "The application for and the execution of the no-knock warrant that resulted in Amir's death is consistent with Minneapolis' custom, pattern and practice of racial discrimination in policing."

Storms, who also serves on the Locke family legal team, accused the city of ignoring the enormous risks involved in serving no-knock warrants — even after a series of botched raids by MPD officers that stretch back decades. The lawsuit recounts four such instances, including a 2007 case where police targeting the wrong home exchanged gunfire with Vang Khang, who assumed the cops were burglars. His wife and six children, ages 3 to 15, were in the house. Police blamed the mix-up on bad intelligence from an informant.

With full control of the state government, DFL lawmakers have vowed to rekindle police reform discussions this session and may again consider banning no-knock search warrants.

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At least three Democratic lawmakers have agreed to take up the issue and pursue a bill in Locke's name, his father said. In the meantime, attorneys plan to aggressively seek a form of injunctive relief that makes it financially prohibitive for police to continue operating with such a militarized culture.

"How many times do we have to say 'never again'? I'm so tired of saying 'never again' because it keeps happening," said attorney Antonio Romanucci.

Wrongful death lawsuits against police officers rarely go to trial in Minnesota as city officials fear that a jury may award even more money in damages than a settlement. Payouts for fatal police encounters vary widely by jurisdiction, but high-profile cases that garnered national media attention in recent years have resulted in massive sums.

Minneapolis paid a record $27 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Floyd's family, a figure hailed by their legal team as the largest pretrial settlement of its kind in U.S. history. That total surpassed the previous $20 million record for the city, awarded in 2019 to the family of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a white woman killed by a Black officer after she reported a possible assault in a nearby alley. Those payouts dwarfed compensation for all previous police-related settlements in the region, including those of Philando Castile, David Smith and Jamar Clark.

Since 2006, the city of Minneapolis has shelled out least $75 million to settle officer misconduct claims or lawsuits.

Star Tribune staff writers Abby Simons and Jeff Hargarten contributed to this report.