MINNEAPOLIS — St. Paul police had applied for a standard search warrant for the predawn raid Wednesday that ended in the shooting death of 22-year-old Amir Locke, but they were overruled by Minneapolis police, who wanted to carry out a no-knock operation in connection with an ongoing homicide investigation, according to a source.
The revelation came as city leaders on Friday announced a moratorium on all no-knock warrants pending a review of the MPD's policy led by Dr. Pete Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University and DeRay McKesson, a former Minneapolis schools official turned prominent anti-police violence activist.
A news release announcing the ban said that McKesson and Kraska helped shape Breonna's Law in Louisville, Kentucky, and have "spearheaded significant reforms to unannounced entry policies associated with no-knock warrants in states across the country."
Locke, who was not a target of the investigation, was sleeping in the downtown Minneapolis apartment of a relative when members of a Minneapolis police SWAT team burst into the apartment shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday. Footage from one of the officers' body cameras showed police quietly unlock the apartment door with a key, before barging inside, yelling "search warrant" as Locke lay under a blanket on the couch. An officer kicked the couch, Locke stirred and was shot within seconds, as he held a firearm in his right hand.
Locke's death was the latest setback for the city's troubled police force, which has struggled to repair its image in the nearly two years since the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that followed. The incident also revived a simmering debate about the use of no-knock search warrants, which critics say unnecessarily escalate encounters.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office said in a news release Friday that Locke was shot multiple times and died 13 minutes later at HCMC. He was struck twice in the chest and once in the wrist.
The autopsy ruled the manner of death as a homicide, meaning an act caused by another person. The release elaborated that the ruling is strictly for classification purposes and is "not a legal determination of culpability or intent."
A law enforcement source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said that St. Paul police filed standard applications for search warrant affidavits for three separate apartments at the Bolero Flats Apartment Homes, at 1117 S. Marquette Ave., earlier this week.
But Minneapolis police insisted that, if their officers were to execute the search within its jurisdiction, St. Paul police must first secure "no-knock" warrants instead. MPD would not have agreed to execute the search otherwise, according to the law enforcement source. St. Paul police very rarely execute no-knock warrants because they are considered high-risk. The capital city police force has not served such a warrant since 2016, said department spokesman Steve Linders.
Authorities identified the MPD officer who fired the fatal shots as Mark Hanneman. Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Huffman coordinated the video release with investigators at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) "without compromising the integrity of their investigation or their ability to collect evidence," read a statement from City Hall.
At an afternoon news conference surrounded by supporters, members of Locke's family called for the prosecution and firing of Hanneman, while activists called for Huffman's firing.
In a statement, police union president Sgt. Sherral Schmidt expressed relief that represents the city's rank-and-file police officers said in a statement Wednesday , Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said the union was thankful that all of the officers involved were "safe." She said that Hanneman was forced to make a "split-second decision to save his life and the lives of fellow officers."
Minneapolis restricted the use of such unannounced raids in 2020, as part of a series of reforms in the wake of Floyd's death in police custody.
But, defense attorneys and police watchdogs say the practice has carried on, almost unabated.
A Star Tribune review of available court records found that department personnel have filed for, and obtained, at least 13 applications for no-knock or night-time warrants since the start of the year — more than the 12 standard search warrants applied for in that same span. At least another seven no-knock warrants have been carried out at Minneapolis addresses by other law enforcement agencies, notably the Hennepin County Sheriff's office. Those figures are almost certainly an undercount, since some warrant applications are filed under seal for various reasons — including the warrants that were filed in connection with the St. Paul homicide investigation.
Minneapolis police carried out a similar surprise raid the day before Locke's killing, during the arrest of two teenagers wanted in a shooting outside a Richfield school that left one student dead, and another seriously injured.
Part of the problem, says St. Paul-based defense attorney Paul Applebaum, is that judges tend to be deferential to law enforcement, signing off on no-knock warrants "without thinking about the potential repercussions if something goes wrong."
"And this is what happens," he said.
He said no-knock warrants are often used in drug and violent crime cases, but that with the expansion of surveillance technology police should be able to apprehend a suspect without such a show of force.
"It seems like the risk is greater than the reward of preserving evidence or not having a shootout or all that," said Applebaum, who has sued officers for alleged misconduct. "It's like, just go sit in the lobby behind a newspaper and wait until he comes out."
The use of these unannounced raids, which allow police to enter a property without announcing their presence beforehand, have been banned in cities across the country after they resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians. Minneapolis restricted the practice in 2020, but it is still occasionally used in certain cases.
Police have defended the use of no-knock raids as necessary for keeping officers safe and giving them a tactical advantage while apprehending violent suspects. But, critics say it puts lives at risk.
Under the current Minneapolis policy, officers must identify themselves as "police" and announce their purpose as "search warrant" before entering any domicile — regardless of whether a judge signed off on an "unannounced" or "no-knock" entry. Once inside a residence, officers are supposed to periodically repeat those announcements in case occupants didn't hear them. The same rules, which mirror those already in place across the river in St. Paul, also apply for arrest warrants.
The practice, most often used by SWAT officers, should help maintain the element of surprise and preservation of evidence while eliminating confusion about who's entering the building, a police spokesman said at the time.
Policy dictates that no-knock warrants would be acceptable only in high-risk circumstances such as a hostage situation, when "giving an announcement would create an imminent threat of physical harm to victims, officers or the public." Some exceptions apply, but investigators need to obtain permission from the chief of police or his or her designee.
In the past, MPD executed an average of 139 no-knock warrants a year.
The American Civil Liberties Union urged law enforcement agencies to ban no-knock warrants following the death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, who was shot eight times by police on March 13, 2020 after three narcotics officers used a no-knock warrant to bust down the door of her apartment during a late-night drug investigation.
Her boyfriend mistook the raid for a home invasion and fired back, striking a detective. Police were looking for Taylor's ex, who was already in custody. No drugs were found.
On Friday, the ACLU's Minnesota office called on the department to ban the use of no-knock warrants and to release the body camera footage of the other officers involved.
"It is the duty of police to deescalate situations, and the ACLU of Minnesota is alarmed that MPD clearly failed in its duty in the police killing of Amir Locke. Bodycam footage clearly shows that police failed to ask Amir Locke to drop the gun, to warn that they'd shoot, or to take any other actions available to them while they were executing a search warrant," the ACLU said in a warrant. "Instead, an officer chose to shoot a kill a man sleeping on a couch, who was still wrapped up in a blanket, within 9 seconds of entering an apartment. A search warrant should not be an execution. Police should not be the judge, jury, and executioner."
In Minnesota, the debate surrounding the use of these surprise raids reached the politically divided Legislature, which passed new regulations on the raids as part of a broader public safety deal.
Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Armstrong, who joined other activists in lobbying for a ban on the practice, said Thursday that that Locke's killing raises key questions about why police didn't appear to know who was in the apartment and seemingly acted "without any checks and balances."
"I think this underscores the need for statewide reform because of policing," she said.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, St. Paul police acknowledged that it is standard practice for law enforcement to request assistance from neighboring agencies when they need to execute a search outside their own jurisdiction. Police departments often defer to the local agencies because they are thought to have more familiarity with the area and can move quickly to preserve evidence.
"Each agency has its own protocols and policies for serving search warrants," Linders said, noting that a Hennepin County judge signed the warrants — which remain sealed — and Minneapolis executed the search. "The agency responsible for serving the warrant determines what tactics that will be used."
He declined to discuss the ultimatum issued by Minneapolis police or elaborate on why St. Paul agreed to appease the demand for a no-knock operation when they don't execute such warrants in their own city.
Huffman said at a news briefing after the footage was released Thursday night that "both a knock and no-knock search warrant were obtained" for three locations within Bolero Flats, but did not elaborate.
The revelation comes as Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced that he is again turning to the state Attorney General's Office for reviewing the killing of the 22-year-old Locke during a raid this week in a downtown Minneapolis apartment.
In a statement issued Friday morning, Freeman's office said Attorney General Keith Ellison has agreed "to partner with the Hennepin County Attorney's Office in its review of the tragic death of Amir Locke. ... This follows the previous constructive partnerships in the successful prosecutions of Derek Chauvin and Kimberly Potter in recent police shooting cases."
Derek Chauvin is serving a 22 1/2-year sentence for Floyd's murder during his detention at a south Minneapolis intersection in May 2020. Potter is awaiting sentencing on Feb. 18 after she was convicted of manslaughter for the April 2021 death of Daunte Wright during a police traffic stop in Brooklyn Center.
Freeman said that his chief criminal deputy, Daniel Mabley, will lead his office's role in the review of Locke's death.
Also Friday morning, a leading state gun rights group contended that Locke acting legally when he armed himself as several Minneapolis police SWAT officers rushed into the downtown apartment, which family members say belonged to a relative.
The assessment from the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus comes after the city released police body-worn camera video showing the officers entering the unit in the Bolero Flats As Locke stirred, his right hand could be seen holding a gun, and within seconds one of them opened fire and fatally wounded the young man.
As seen in the video, "Mr. Locke appears to be sleeping on the couch during the execution of a no-knock warrant," read a statement from Bryan Strawser, who chairs the caucus. "He is awoken with a confusing array of commands coming from multiple officers who are pointing lights and firearms at him."
Rob Doar, a caucus senior vice president, said that Locke "did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances. He read for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening."
Doar asserted that "the tragic circumstances of Mr. Locke's death were completely avoidable. It's yet another example where a no-knock warrant has resulted in the death of an innocent person."
Locke's family has said he owned the gun and had a permit to carry. Doar said that no permit to carry would have been necessary for Locke, as he was in a private residence. There is also no gun registration or licensing to own in Minnesota, so it's irrelevant whether or not he owned the gun, as he is not prohibited from possessing a firearm, according to Minnesota court records.
The family has since retained attorneys Ben Crump and Jeff Storms, who told reporters on Friday that they took issue with the MPD's initial news release about the shooting. The lawyers contended that the release labeled Locke as a suspect in connection with St. Paul's homicide search warrant even though interim Chief Huffman said that was not the case.
While the wording in the release left that connection unclear, Storms said in an interview "the MPD wrote it, so I guess you'll have to ask the city what they meant. Amir is a victim, not a suspect. … We believe that release was a deliberate attempt to publicly label Amir as a homicide suspect to detract from the officer and MPD's conduct."
After the shooting, the BCA obtained a warrant to search the apartment and retrieve evidence, according to an affidavit supporting the warrant. They inventoried three 9mm spent shell casings, presumably fired from Hanneman's gun, as well other items. They also recovered a pistol from the living room.
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