Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined the investigation into the death of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man shot and killed by Minneapolis police, on Friday (Feb. 4).
Body camera footage, which showed police storming an apartment that Locke was staying in on Wednesday morning (Feb. 2) and fatally shooting him, was released by the City of Minneapolis on Thursday (Feb. 3).
As reported by REVOLT, a SWAT team obtained both knock and no-knock warrants for three apartment units within the Balero Flats complex as part of a homicide investigation led by the St. Paul Police Department. A segment of an officer’s body camera footage shows that police entered an apartment just around 7 a.m. local time with their guns drawn, saying, “Police, search warrant.”
Locke did not live at the complex, but was staying overnight at a relative’s apartment, his family said. He was also not named on the search warrant and did not have a criminal record.
When police entered the apartment, Locke was wrapped in a blanket on a couch, where he had been sleeping, and was holding a gun, which his family says he was legally licensed to carry. Roughly 10 seconds after opening the door, the bodycam video shows, officer Mark Hanneman fatally shot Locke three times.
After releasing the footage on Thursday, Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman said in a press conference that Hanneman made a “split-second decision” after seeing Locke’s gun.
The interim chief also claimed Locke pointed the firearm at an officer outside of the body camera’s view. However, in the footage and a released still image, the gun appears to be pointed down toward the couch.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman is reviewing the case and asked Ellison to join the investigation on Friday. The attorney general previously led the prosecutions of both former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and ex-Brooklyn Center cop Kim Potter.