Minnesota prosecutors declined to file charges on Wednesday against a Minneapolis police Swat team officer who fatally shot Amir Locke while executing an early morning no-knock search warrant in a downtown apartment in February.
Locke, 22, who was Black, was staying on a couch in the apartment when authorities entered it on 2 February without knocking as part of an investigation into a homicide in neighboring St Paul.
His parents have said that from what they saw of the police body-camera footage, it appeared that their son was startled awake. His mother, Karen Wells, has called his death “an execution”. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Locke, who was not named in the warrant, was shot seconds after authorities say he pointed a gun in the direction of officers. Locke’s family has questioned that. The body-camera footage shows Locke holding a gun before he was shot.
Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, and the Hennepin county attorney, Michael Freeman, whose offices reviewed the case, said they determined that the relevant officer, Mark Hanneman, was justified in firing his weapon.
“There is insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges in this case. Specifically, the state would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota’s use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer Hanneman,” Ellison and Freeman said in a joint statement.
Locke’s death came as three former Minneapolis police officers were on trial in federal court in St Paul in George Floyd’s 2020 killing.
It sparked protests and a re-examination of no-knock search warrants. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey announced an immediate moratorium on such warrants, and on Tuesday, he formalized a new policy that will take effect on Friday requiring officers to knock and wait before entering a residence.
Some lawmakers also have been pushing for a statewide ban on no-knock warrants, except in rare circumstances.
“Amir Locke is a victim,” Ellison and Freeman said. “This tragedy may not have occurred absent the no-knock warrant used in this case.”