Amir Locke police shooting death: Minneapolis Mayor Frey grilled over no-knock search warrant policy

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey confronted questions from metropolis leaders on Monday over his insurance policies associated to the police division’s follow of no-knock warrants, simply days after a metropolis cop fatally shot a person throughout one of many raids, police have stated.

Frey answered dozens of questions throughout a Minneapolis Metropolis Council Coverage & Authorities Oversight Committee “dialogue on no-knock warrant insurance policies” on Monday afternoon, when he pressured the responsibility to honor “the sanctity of life.”

“That signifies that the overriding objective right here that comes from any of those selections, it’s the preservation of life, interval. Meaning security of the general public, which means security of our officers, everybody,” he stated. “And it shouldn’t take a tragedy to carry us so far.”

MINNEAPOLIS PROTEST OF AMIR LOCKE SHOOTING DEATH DRAWS MORE THAN 1,000 MARCHERS: REPORTS

An affiliate professor and a scholar from the College of St. Thomas College of Legislation attended the assembly, in addition to firebrand civil rights legal professional Ben Crump, who was one of many attorneys who represented the household of Breonna Taylor. Taylor died when law enforcement officials allegedly shot her throughout a no-knock warrant in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020. 

Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, was shot simply after 6:45 a.m. native time on Feb. 2 whereas SWAT workforce members with the Minneapolis Police Division (MPD) had been conducting a no-knock warrant at a seventh-floor condominium in a constructing on South Marquette Avenue close to South twelfth Avenue. In keeping with native affiliate FOX 9, Saint Paul Police requested the search warrant as a part of an open homicide investigation. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Locke was not named within the warrant. 

Police stated the officers “loudly and repeatedly introduced their presence” and entered the condominium, the place they encountered Locke about 9 seconds later. 

Police bodycam footage reveals that one uniformed officer used a key to get into the condominium. Locke was wrapped in a blanket and appeared to have been mendacity down, however moved away from the sofa with a gun in his hand moments earlier than one of many officers shot him. 

AMIR LOCKE SHOOTING: MINNEAPOLIS POLICE RELEASE BODYCAM FOOTAGE SHOWING OFFICER OPENING FIRE

MPD stated one officer fired his responsibility weapon. Locke was rushed to a neighborhood hospital, however he couldn’t be saved. 

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Workplace decided that his dying was a murder ensuing from a number of gunshot wounds. 

Locke’s dying, which stays below investigation, prompted protests over the weekend that had been at occasions attended by a whole lot of individuals. 

On Saturday, protesters held indicators and sang chants as they marched by the town. The subsequent evening, a roughly 50-car caravan drove by the town calling for justice earlier than some convened in entrance of what was reported to be the house of MPD Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman.

On Friday, Frey’s workplace introduced a moratorium on no-knock warrants. Frey was requested throughout Monday’s assembly about his workplace’s evaluate and revisions of the coverage. 

When questioned about how lengthy his workplace expects to take to evaluate the coverage, he stated he couldn’t but give a solution “just because I don’t wish to rush a coverage that we have to get proper.” 

“There’s an ongoing stress I acknowledge of doing issues shortly and getting them proper, and I really feel strongly that we have to err on the aspect of doing this proper,” he stated, “as a result of as we’ve seen, this can be a very advanced coverage itself.”

The mayor stated it’s as much as the courts and the judiciary to evaluate the information in every search warrant utility to find out whether or not to grant the request. 

“It’s as much as the courtroom and the choose themselves as to whether or not they perceive the requisite info and the requisite hazard to necessitate a warrant within the first place,” he stated. “That willpower would actually be made on a case-by-case foundation.”

Frey’s workplace created a no-knock warrant coverage in November 2020 that required officers to announce themselves even when servicing no-knock warrants. Friday’s moratorium barred the issuance and execution of such warrants altogether.

The mayor additionally confronted questions in the course of the assembly about his determination to not ban no-knock warrants outright, although he famous the coverage continues to be below evaluate. 

He stated he can be desirous about bringing the dialogue of the coverage to a public discussion board.