Protesters Gather In Downtown Minneapolis In Wake Of Police Shooting Of Amir Locke
UPDATE (5:37 p.m.): Protestors have gathered back outside the Hennepin County Government Center. WCCO's Adam Duxter reports demonstrators are heading home.
UPDATE (4:56 p.m.): Protestors have stopped in front of the Minneapolis Police Department's 1st Precinct on 4th Street.
UPDATE (4:30 p.m.): Hundreds of protesters are marching through downtown Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Protesters gathered in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon to demand answers and express outrage after the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke.
The crowd started to gather on Saturday afternoon outside of the Hennepin County Government Center, holding signs calling for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to resign and for Minneapolis Police Officer Mark Hanneman - who fatally shot Locke on Wednesday - to be fired and prosecuted.
Locke, 22, was shot by Hanneman as a SWAT team burst through the door of a downtown apartment. Minneapolis police say they were aiding St. Paul police with the execution of a search warrant, and Locke was not named in the original warrant.
In response to the shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey instituted a moratorium on the request or execution of no-knock warrants in the city. The moratorium has an exception for situations when there is an "imminent threat of harm to an individual or the public," and it would need to be approved by Interim Chief Amelia Huffman.
In 2020, the mayor and former police chief updated the department's no-knock policy specifying that officers need to announce themselves as police before they cross the threshold. Body camera footage of Locke's death shows officers announce themselves as they cross the threshold. Locke is shot three times less than 10 seconds later.
Body camera footage shows Locke, who had a license to carry, had his gun at the time. Family members say he had gotten his gun to protect himself as he drove for Doordash.
During a press conference Friday, Locke's parents said he was "loved by all, hated by none," and had dreams of going into the music industry.
Amir Locke's father spoke for about half an hour to a crowd of hundreds of people, maybe a thousand.
What the people wanted was stated clearly -- for Hanneman, who shot Amir Locke, to be fired and criminally charged, for Huffman to be fired and for Frey to resign.
Andre Locke, Amir's father, spoke for about half an hour to the crowd.
"This is not easy to have to bury your son," he said. "I'm going to miss cracking jokes with my boy. I'm going to miss calling him to find out what's the best and who's rocking in the music."
Linda Tyler, Amir's aunt, said she's not satisfied with what's been made public so far.
"Where are the rest of the cameras we haven't seen that haven't been recorded?" she said. "We want all the footage."
