MINNEAPOLIS — A Hennepin County judge approved the no-knock warrant that led to the police killing of Amir Locke during a raid in downtown Minneapolis last week in order to preserve potential evidence in a St. Paul homicide, according to court documents newly released Thursday.
The stealth entry to execute the search warrant was approved on Feb. 1, the day before Minneapolis SWAT officers stormed into the Bolero Flats apartment yelling "search warrant" without knocking. Locke, 22, was on a couch under a blanket, and stirred after an officer kicked the couch. He had a gun in his right hand and was shot within seconds.
Locke was not the subject of the search warrant, nor were the others who were in the apartment at the time: Locke's older brother and the brother's girlfriend.
