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| Amir Locke (22) holds a gun as he unfolds a blanket before being shot and killed by Minneapolis police’s SWAT team, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., February 2, 2022, in this screen grab taken from a video. Video taken February 2, 2022. Minneapolis Police Department/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT. MUST CREDIT MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT |
A 22-year-old armed Black man was fatally shot by a Minneapolis police SWAT team during a raid on his apartment on Wednesday, video recorded by a police body camera showed.
The Minneapolis Police Department released the video and a still image on Thursday showing the man, Amir Locke, held a gun in his hand as he twisted round beneath a blanket after being roused by police, with several armed officers looming over the sofa where he lay.
The incident will inevitably stoke memories of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed in the same city almost two years ago by a white officer who knelt on his neck for over nine minutes during an arrest. Outrage over Floydโs death sparked a mass movement challenging police brutality and bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.
The video shows police unlocking Lockeโs apartment with a key, and officers shouting โpolice, search warrant, get on the ground, get on the fucking ground,โ as they went in.
An officer then kicks at the couch that Locke was lying on, and as Locke turns, one arm comes out from beneath the blanket, the hand holding a gun.
Almost immediately three shots were fired, and Locke sprawls back, still twisted up in the blanket.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Minneapolis Police Department said that the man had a โhandgun pointed in the direction of the officers.โ
During a press conference on Thursday interim Minneapolis Police Department chief Amelia Huffman said the countyโs attorney will review the facts, in response to a question pointing out that the video appeared to show that Lockeโs gun was pointed towards the floor.
โAs thereโs a gun emerging in your direction, you are forced to make a split second decision on when itโs a threat,โ Huffman added.
Locke was taken to the Hennepin County medical center after the shooting, where he died on Wednesday.
Ben Crump and Jeff Storms, lawyers representing Lockeโs family in the case, compared the killing to Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and said that the available information reflected that Locke was not the subject of policeโs warrant.
Huffman confirmed that Locke was not named in the search warrant issued in relation to Saint Paulโs police homicide investigation.
โIt is unclear at this time how he or if he was connected to the Saint Paulโs investigation,โ Huffman said.
She went on to say that officers from the Saint Paulโs Police Department were at the scene later and had recovered possible evidence for the homicide investigation.
According to the lawyers, Locke had no criminal history and legally possessed a firearm at the time of his death.
โIn the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the City of Minneapolis told the public that it was limiting the use of no-knock warrants to โlimit the likelihood of bad outcomes.โ Less than two years later, Amir Locke and his family needlessly suffered the worst possible outcome,โ Storms said in a statement.
Taylor, a Black woman was shot and killed when armed police raided her Kentucky apartment in March 2020. Floyd was killed in May 2020.
REUTERS
