Minneapolis residents are calling for interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman’s resignation after the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man.
According to ABC News, activists with the Racial Justice Network and other groups drove through Minneapolis on Sunday (Feb. 6) to call for justice for Locke. Demonstrators also gathered near Huffman’s home and chanted the names of Locke and Breonna Talyor, who was also shot and killed while police served a no-knock warrant in Kentucky two years ago.
“We’re asking for her job because it seems like the only time they pay attention is when it affects their jobs or their money,” activist Toussaint Morrison said over a megaphone, per The Star Tribune. “But we pull up when it affects our lives.”
The demonstration followed a march on Saturday (Feb. 5) where residents and activists assembled outside the Hennepin County Government Center and marched down city streets.
As reported by REVOLT, Locke was shot and killed on Wednesday morning (Feb. 2) by a Minneapolis cop while a SWAT team served a no-knock search warrant at his relative’s apartment, where he was staying. Locke was not named in the warrant.
The City of Minneapolis released body camera footage from the incident last week, which showed a group of officers entering the apartment just before 7 a.m. local time and saying, “Police, search warrant.”
Locke was sitting on a couch underneath a blanket, where he had been sleeping, when police arrived. The 22-year-old was holding a gun, which his family says he was legally licensed to carry.
“Amir was a bright light and he deserves to be able to shine,” his father Andre Locke said in a press conference on Friday (Feb. 4).
“You took a good kid who was trying to make the best out of his environment and surpass it and succeed and he was doing it,” Andre’s cousin Reginald McClure added. “He was figuring out life, but he was doing it safely.”
According to Daily Mail, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz activated the National Guard in wake of the deadly shooting and amidst the ongoing federal trial of three former Minnesota officers involved in George Floyd’s death.