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The police killing of Amir Locke
Matt Sepic
Minneapolis

Locke killing: Cops told judge no-knock warrant needed amid safety fears

an apartment building in Minneapolis
The apartment building in downtown Minneapolis where a Amir Locke was shot and killed by police on Feb. 2.
Tim Evans for MPR News

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Search warrants tied to the police shooting of Amir Locke say police asked a judge to let them enter a downtown Minneapolis apartment last week without knocking because officers feared for their safety.

In the warrants unsealed Thursday, police said the suspect they were seeking in a Jan. 10 St. Paul homicide had a handgun capable of shooting body armor-piercing bullets and that a no-knock entry would "decrease the risk for injuries to the suspects and other residents."

Records show Judge Peter Cahill approved standard search warrants for three apartments in the Bolero Flats apartments in Minneapolis. The next day St. Paul police got Cahill to approve no-knock warrants.

Locke was not mentioned in the warrants. Authorities have since arrested a 17-year-old cousin of Amir Locke in connection with the Elder killing and charged him with second-degree murder.

The initial police body camera footage of the fatal shooting of Locke shows a SWAT team entering the apartment with a key, without knocking, shouting “police search warrant” several times as officers enter and then quickly approach a couch with a figure wrapped in a blanket.

The video shows Locke, 22, apparently waking up as officers yell. He can be seen stirring from the blanket and then holding a gun as he starts to move just before he is shot, roughly nine seconds after the police enter.

Locke’s parents and their attorneys on Friday slammed the actions of Minneapolis police seen on the body camera video as reckless and unwarranted. His parents said their son, a deep sleeper, was a law-abiding gun owner with no criminal history and a legal permit to carry.

Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Jeff Storms, and Antonio Romanucci held a news conference Thursday afternoon with the families of Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor to demand the abolishment of no-knock warrants: