A no-knock failure left Amir Locke dead

This has to stop.

As editorialists we value even-tempered responses to the maddening events around us, but as citizens we cannot deny the anguish of being joined to a city whose commitment to justice is undermined again and again and again. It has to stop.

Yet another Twin Cities family is mourning the death of a young Black man at the hands of police, once again captured on a traumatic video that prompts more grief, more anger, more questions.

By now most Minnesotans have seen the images of a Minneapolis Police Department SWAT team quietly unlocking a door and entering a darkened downtown apartment just before 7 a.m. Wednesday. The officers then storm inside, shouting "Police, search warrant!" After a few seconds of chaotic shouting, veteran officer Mark Hanneman shoots 22-year-old Amir Locke, who had emerged from under a blanket holding a handgun.

Locke, who apparently had been sleeping on a couch in a relative's apartment, died 13 minutes later at nearby Hennepin County Medical Center. He had been shot twice in the chest and once in the wrist.

We've since learned that the MPD was executing a no-knock search warrant as part of a St. Paul murder investigation. Locke, like Breonna Taylor in 2020, was not the target of that probe. But he ended up being shot three times and dying.

The Star Tribune and other news media outlets have reported that St. Paul police had applied for a standard search warrant but that the MPD insisted that the raid be a no-knock operation. No-knock warrants are controversial, with critics arguing that they make police encounters more dangerous — as in the shooting death of the innocent Taylor in Louisville, Ky. — and with some in policing maintaining that they are necessary to protect cops and evidence.

Minneapolis restricted no-knock raids as one of its policing reforms in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 death, requiring that officers announce their presence before crossing the threshold of a residence. The Star Tribune reported that the MPD has obtained at least 13 no-knock or nighttime warrants this year, and that another seven no-knock warrants have been carried out at city addresses by other law enforcement agencies. There are likely to have been more, because — as in the case of the investigation that led to Locke's death — some warrant applications are filed under seal.

On Friday, Mayor Jacob Frey placed a moratorium on no-knock warrants, except in extreme circumstances involving imminent danger. The MPD had been executing such warrants an average of 139 times a year. The ban will stay in effect pending a review of its search warrant policy by Prof. Pete Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University and DeRay Mckesson, a former Minneapolis schools official and activist against police violence. Kraska and Mckesson helped develop reforms such as "Breonna's Law" in Kentucky.

Neither the moratorium nor the policy review will likely ease the pain of Locke's family, but both are necessary. The review should lead to either a permanent ban on no-knock warrants or a more effective overhaul of the Minneapolis policy. It's also worth noting that St. Paul police rarely execute no-knock warrants — in fact, they haven't used one since 2016 — because they consider them high-risk, a spokesman told the Star Tribune. But the MPD successfully used such a warrant just the day before Locke's killing to arrest two suspects, and recover a gun, in connection with last week's school shooting in Richfield.

The warrants in the investigation that led to Locke's killing should be unsealed. The public needs to know why the MPD would agree only to execute a no-knock search, and Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman should explain what role she had in approving the raid, why it left an innocent man dead, and why the MPD initially and incorrectly referred to Locke as a "suspect." Huffman did say last week that police collected evidence related to the murder investigation during the search.

The Star Tribune Editorial Board backed Frey in his re-election bid and opposed an ill-conceived city charter change that would have replaced the Police Department. But those positions were conditioned, in part, on effective policing reforms and rebuilding public trust in the MPD. Locke's death is a tragic setback to those efforts and raises new questions about Frey's and Huffman's leadership.

In a move that should boost public confidence that more answers — and justice — will be forthcoming, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Friday that his staff will work with state Attorney General Keith Ellison's office to review Locke's death.

Members of Locke's family have called for Hanneman's firing and prosecution. If the officer has his day in court, issues such as reasonable use of force and split-second decision-making will be judged in light of the fact that Locke was holding a gun when he was shot. Locke owned the licensed firearm and had a permit to carry it in part, his family said, because he did DoorDash deliveries and wanted protection in light of the increase in violent carjackings in the Twin Cities.

We can't help thinking, again, that there are too many guns on our streets, whether legally or illegally obtained. Amir Locke, an aspiring musician with an interest in business, shouldn't have had to fear for his safety while making food deliveries to earn money, and the two New York City police officers who were shot and killed in the line of duty last month should still be with their families today. But the cycle of violence continues, putting citizens and cops on edge and creating circumstances that can quickly escalate out of control. And guns are the common thread.

This has to stop.