MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota prosecutors have declined to file charges against a Minneapolis police SWAT team officer who fatally shot Amir Locke while executing an early morning no-knock search warrant in February.
The 22-year-old Locke, who was Black, was staying on a couch in an apartment when authorities entered without knocking as part of an investigation into a homicide. Locke was not named in the warrant.
Authorities said he was shot seconds after he pointed a gun in the direction of officers. Locke’s family has questioned that, saying body camera footage appeared to show he was startled awake.
The footage shows Locke was holding a gun before he was shot.
His death sparked a reexamination of no-knock search warrants in Minneapolis and beyond.