Family and attorneys of Amir Locke call on Biden to ban no-knock warrants

The families of Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor — both of whom were killed by police who entered their home during raids — spoke at a press conference at the Minnesota state Capitol to demand the abolishment of no-knock police warrants. The controversial practice took center stage again after a Minneapolis police SWAT team entered a downtown apartment on the night of Feb. 2 and killed 22-year-old Locke, a Black man who was asleep at the time.

Toshira Garraway of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence opened the press conference and introduced civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented both Taylor and Locke’s surviving relatives. Crump called for Minnesota and all states to ban no-knock warrants, which are search warrants approved by a judge allowing law enforcement to enter a home without announcing their presence.

“The blood of Amir Locke, the blood of Breonna Taylor, should hopefully call for a ban on no-knock warrants all over the country, President Biden,” Crump said.

Locke was reportedly sleeping in his cousin’s apartment when police entered with a key. Bodycam footage captured them storming in, then announcing their presence and seeing Locke, who was noticeably shaken from being suddenly woken up.

He reached for a legal firearm, but kept his finger off of the trigger, as shown by a still image of the encounter, but he was shot once the gun surfaced.

Locke’s parents, who previously have said their son was executed by police, both spoke at Thursday’s event. “We demand that they pass the law for no-knock warrants in the name of my son Amir, we demand justice and we demand that this is done properly,” said Andre Locke, Amir’s father.

His mother, Karen Wells, followed, saying: “His name was Amir Rahkare Locke. He loved the youth, wanted to save the youth, and we gonna save the rest of the youth. Y’all will not enter another apartment complex of a person of color and y’all knew when y’all was going there, there was people of color that lived there. So y’all did y’all research, but you didn’t know who was up under them sheets.”

“We need you to issue a federal decree to abolish no-knock warrants being executed by any federal official in the name of Amir Locke, in the name of Breonna Taylor,” Crump added, again addressing Biden. Even though such a decree would not apply to state and local law enforcement like the Minneapolis Police Department, Crump argued it would set an example. “President Biden: Start at the top and the states should follow.”

Thursday, a judge approved the unsealing of the search warrant details, giving more insight into what happened. It shows the Minneapolis Police Department insisted on the no-knock warrant after the St. Paul Police Department suggested a “knock and announce.”

The shooting occurred at a time when Minneapolis police are under scrutiny for other acts of police brutality. Three Minneapolis officers face federal trial for the death of George Floyd. Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are accused of violating his civil rights while acting under “color of law” for not intervening and stopping former Officer Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty of murder by the state for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.

Locke, Crump said, “didn’t have a chance” when officers conducted a nighttime no-knock warrant. He continued: “You just simply can’t believe, during the trial of police officers who killed George Floyd, that we’re gonna have another Black man killed unjustly in the Twin City area. I mean what do we have to do to say stop killing us, especially while we are going through the trial of the killers of George Floyd, which you all may remember was supposed to be the turning point. You remember that?”

Two days after the shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey halted nearly all no-knock warrants. His office said that under the moratorium, a no-knock warrant could only be used if police determine there is an “imminent threat of harm,” and even then the warrant must be approved by the chief. The Minneapolis City Council’s Policy & Government Oversight Committee also held a hearing on no-knock warrants. Frey plans to work with the MPD and two experts who helped craft “Breonna’s Law,” which has restricted no-knock warrants in other cities and states, on revisions to the policy.

“No matter what information comes to light, it won’t change the fact that Amir Locke’s life was cut short,” Frey said. “To ensure safety of both the public and officers until a new policy is crafted, I’m issuing a moratorium on both the request and execution of such warrants in Minneapolis.”

In the meantime, officers must use a “knock-and-announce” approach, in which a police officer executing a search warrant waits for a response before forcing their way in.

Minneapolis police were executing a warrant on behalf of the Saint Paul Police Department Homicide Unit when they entered the seventh-floor apartment. The incident report states officers “loudly and repeatedly announced their presence, crossed the threshold of the apartment and advanced with loud announcements of their presence. Approximately nine seconds into the entry, officers encountered a male who was armed with a handgun pointed in the direction of the officers.”

Then one of those officers opened fire and struck Locke. He was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died.

Police were not seeking Locke with the warrant, which was in connection to a homicide investigation, according to interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman. A suspect in that investigation, 17-year-old Mekhi Camden Speed, was arrested on Monday, according to St. Paul police. The teen has been identified as Locke’s cousin. Authorities further said surveillance video helped connect them to Speed and his location at the Bolero Flats apartment building, where Locke was killed, as reported by the Associated Press.

According to AP, witnesses said Speed lived in the building with his mother in 1402, but also had a key to 701 — the apartment where his brother lives and the one police raided.

Speed was booked at the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center for second-degree murder for the killing of Otis Elder on Jan. 10, police said.

Jeff Storms, another attorney for the Locke family, also spoke at the press conference. “The city of Minneapolis, like the rest of the world, knew about the dangers of no-knock warrants from the killing of Breonna Taylor,” he said. “And not only Breonna Taylor, but we’ve had our own no-knock examples here in Minnesota as well.”