MINNEAPOLIS — St. Paul police applied for a standard search warrant for the predawn raid in downtown Minneapolis that ended in the shooting death of Amir Locke, but were overruled by Minneapolis police, who wanted to carry out a no-knock operation, according to a source.
Locke was shot shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday while on a couch during the execution of a search warrant involving a St. Paul homicide. Body camera footage released late Thursday showed a Minneapolis police SWAT team using a key to quietly unlock the apartment before barging in yelling "search warrant" as Locke lay under a blanket on the couch. Lock stirred and was shot within seconds as his hand could be seen on a gun.
The case has revived a simmering debate about the use of no-knock search warrants, which critics say unnecessarily escalate encounters.
