Activists protest Amir Locke shooting

A caravan of more than 50 cars flooded Minneapolis streets on Sunday to protest the police shooting of a 22-year-old man during the execution of a no-knock search warrant. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Hennepin County Government Center on Saturday morning, and activists also protested in a neighborhood where interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman is believed to live.

What happened? The search warrant was connected to a homicide investigation in St. Paul. The apartment in downtown Minneapolis belonged to a relative of Locke, who was not listed as a suspect in the case, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. Locke was sleeping on the couch when the SWAT team entered early Wednesday morning using a key. They yelled to announce themselves once inside. Police body camera video shows an officer kicking a sectional sofa, and Locke, who was wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, beginning to move, holding a pistol. Police shot three times, killing him. Locke’s family said he had a permit to carry a gun. They have hired Ben Crump, an attorney who won a massive settlement for George Floyd’s family, as their attorney. Mayor Jacob Frey placed an immediate moratorium on no-knock warrants while beginning a review of the department’s policy.

Dig deeper: From the archives, read Sophia Lee’s report in WORLD Magazine about Breonna Taylor, who was killed during a no-knock police raid in Louisville, Ky., in 2020.