Amir Locke: No charges filed in Minneapolis 'no-knock' police shooting

No criminal charges will be brought against a Minneapolis police officer who shot dead a 22-year-old man in an apartment during a "no-knock" raid.

Amir Locke was at his cousin's apartment on 2 February when a Swat team entered the home.

Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to charge officer Mark Hanneman, who fired the fatal shot.

They also said they did not have enough evidence to prove criminal wrongdoing by any of the other officers involved.

Mr Locke was sleeping in a couch in his cousin's apartment when a nine-member Swat team entered the home.

In bodycam footage released by the police after the incident, he is under a blanket on the couch holding a gun - for which he had a permit - in his hand. He was shot three times by Mr Hanneman.

His family has said they believe he was startled and reached for the weapon in self-defence.

A judge had approved a warrant for the raid, which was conducted as part of an investigation into a fatal shooting in the neighbouring city of St Paul. Mr Locke was not a suspect in the killing or named in the warrant, and his death prompted outrage and protests in Minneapolis.

On Wednesday, County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that there was "insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges in this case".

The circumstances in the case "are such that an objectively reasonable officer in Officer Hanneman's position would have perceived an immediate threat of death or great bodily harm" the statement said, adding that "an objectively reasonable officer would not delay in using deadly force".

The statement also said that Mr Locke, an aspiring musician, was a victim and that his life mattered. "He should be alive today, and his death is a tragedy".

Mr Locke's mother Karen Wells said in a news conference following the announcement that she was "disgusted with Minneapolis, Minnesota".

Her son's death drew comparisons to the case of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot and killed in her Louisville, Kentucky home by US police in March 2020 during another no-knock raid, which allows police to access without announcing their presence before entering.

Ms Wells vowed to "continue the fight for the no-knock warrant bans in honour of his name [and] for Breonna Taylor".

"This cannot happen to anybody else," she said.

As of Friday, Minneapolis police will no longer be allowed to apply for or execute no-knock warrants or respond to such requests from other police forces, barring certain '"exigent" circumstances, the mayor's office said this week. Under the new policy, police must repeatedly knock and announce their presence and purpose prior to entry.