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Minnesota prosecutors on Tuesday introduced the arrest of a 17-year-old cousin of Amir Locke, the 22-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by Minneapolis cops in a infamous no-knock raid final week.
Through the early-morning Feb. 2 incident, Minneapolis Police Officer Mark Hanneman shot Locke—who was not the goal of the operation—inside seconds of breaching the residence by which he was sleeping. Locke was armed with a handgun on the time, which his household has stated he owned legally.
Minneapolis police reportedly insisted on a no-knock—or unannounced—raid within the case, regardless that the Saint Paul cops investigating the murder didn't ask for one.
On Tuesday, legislation enforcement introduced plans to cost the teenager they had been after—who's a juvenile and was arrested on Sunday—with two counts of second-degree homicide. The costs are available in reference to the Jan. 10 loss of life of Otis Rodney Elder in Saint Paul. A petition towards the suspect indicated that the residence by which Locke was fatally shot belonged to the suspect’s brother’s girlfriend.
The petition states that cops had warrants for 2 different residences on the advanced—referred to as Bolero Flats—the place Locke was killed. Police stated they discovered garments, a duffle bag, and different proof tied to the homicide suspect within the constructing. Most of that proof was recovered from items apart from the one by which Locke was killed, although cops stated they discovered a black Canada Goose jacket with fur that they believed belonged to the suspect on the residence Locke was staying in.
Police finally discovered the 17-year-old they had been after in Winona, Minnesota, on Sunday, the place they stated he was arrested whereas in possession of a loaded gun.
Protests have raged in Minneapolis in current days, recalling widespread and typically harmful unrest after Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd within the metropolis in Could 2020. That infamous incident—by which Chauvin pressed his knee onto Floyd’s again and neck for over 9 minutes—helped launch a nationwide rebellion over police racism and brutality.
Chauvin has since been convicted and sentenced to many years in jail, whereas three officers who additionally presided over Floyd’s homicide are at the moment dealing with trial on federal civil rights fees.
No-knock warrants contain instances the place police don't announce themselves earlier than breaching an residence, and are broadly derided by specialists and activists for inviting police violence towards individuals of shade. Because the furor over Locke’s loss of life by the hands of police escalated final week, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey—who gained re-election final 12 months after dealing with harsh scrutiny within the aftermath of Floyd’s homicide—introduced a brand new coverage on no-knock warrants within the metropolis. Citing a collaboration with embattled Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, Frey detailed a moratorium on the apply, at the same time as he left the door open for it for use in excessive eventualities that required particular techniques.
Frey was additionally compelled to play protection at a Metropolis Council assembly Monday, throughout which he admitted that he had beforehand urged he was imposing a ban on the apply, and had failed to take action. As an alternative, the 2020 coverage merely served to place strain on cops to announce themselves as they crossed the brink into houses, and the Star Tribune reported that no-knock raids continued apace.