Amir Locke Bodycam Video Appears To Contradict Minneapolis Police Claim

Video footage of the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke appears to contradict a Minneapolis police claim that armed officers "loudly and repeatedly announced their presence" before entering the apartment where he was killed.

Amir Rahkare Locke, 22, was fatally shot by Minneapolis Police Department officer Mark Hanneman on Wednesday morning at the Bolero Flats apartment building as police carried out a search warrant, according to documents made publicly available by police.

Following public outcry, MPD released body-camera footage of the incident, which showed a man lying on a couch wrapped in a blanket when the department's SWAT team entered the apartment shortly before 7 a.m. (8 a.m. ET).

The graphic, short video shows the raid took place in under 10 seconds. MPD released footage of the encounter at both slow and regular speed.

In it, an officer can be seen cautiously turning a key in the apartment door before multiple officers wearing protective vests enter without knocking and begin shouting repeatedly: "Police, search warrant!"

In the video only one such shout is heard before the first armed officer enters. A second officer enters on the second such shout.

"Hands, hands!" an officer is then heard yelling in the clip, while another says: "Get on the ground!"

A police news release about the shooting appeared to suggest that officers "repeatedly announced their presence" before entering the apartment.

It said: "Officers gained entry to the target apartment on the seventh floor, loudly and repeatedly announced their presence, crossed the threshold of the apartment, and advanced with continued loud announcements of their presence."

Under the city's policy—effective November 30, 2020—officers must announce their presence and purpose before entering and give reasonable time to respond, with some exceptions such as in hostage situations.

Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman later told a press conference that the warrant was related to a homicide investigation being conducted in Minneapolis' sister city, St. Paul.

Officers involved obtained both a knock and no-knock warrant, she said, "so that the SWAT team could assess the circumstances and make the best possible decision about entering."

Locke was not named in the warrant, according to a civil rights attorney who cited conversations with the 22-year-old's family.

Huffman said the officers identified themselves as police before entering and again inside the seventh-floor apartment building.

"They used a key to open the door and announced 'police, search warrant' before they crossed the threshold," she told reporters.

The footage shows an officer kicking the couch where Locke lay wrapped tightly in a blanket, causing him to fall onto the floor. Locke is seen with a gun in his hand. At least three shots were fired in response by police.

Huffman told reporters that police made a "split-second decision" to open fire after seeing Locke holding a gun. MPD released a still of the footage showing a gun in Locke's hand.

CPR was performed on Locke minutes later, before paramedics transported him to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

According to the Associated Press, Locke did not live at the apartment building, but was spending the night with friends. His relatives say he was licensed to carry a weapon.

The body-camera footage has provoked outrage, with many criticizing officers as not giving Locke adequate time to respond to or process the situation

"The body cam footage depicts Amir Locke waking up not from a knock at the door but from armed men screaming at him from inside the apartment," Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh said in a Twitter post.

"It is clear he had no time to process what was happening nor who was doing it. This was a break-in and murder. #JusticeForAmirLocke," added Fateh, who represents District 62 in South Minneapolis.

John Hamasaki, a San Fransisco-based criminal defense attorney, compared the incident to the officer-involved shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2020.

"Amir Locke was asleep on the couch under the covers, when police entered at the crack of dawn. Just waking, hearing a commotion, he grabs a firearm, but does not point it at officers. Police open fire, killing him. Not target of warrant, gun legal. Dead," he said on Twitter.

"Police used a no-knock warrant, opened up and began screaming at dude," Hamsaki added. "At first review, this is looking worse than Breonna Taylor, in that gun was never pointed, no shots fired, they just waste the dude half-asleep on the couch. Remember all the "reforms" we were promised?"

Newsweek has contacted MPD for comment.