Activists protest decision not to charge Minneapolis officer who fatally shot Amir Locke

Activists marched in downtown Minneapolis on Friday, protesting the Hennepin County Attorney's Office's decision to not charge a Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a man while executing a so-called no-knock warrant.

Demonstrators said there was still no justice for Amir Locke, a 22-year-old who was shot and killed in February as police executed a warrant that he was not the subject of in an apartment in downtown Minneapolis where he was sleeping.

On Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that officer Mark Hanneman, who fired the fatal shot, would not be charged with a crime. They said current state law gives wide latitude to officers who are carrying out no-knock warrants.

"Amir Locke had about nine seconds to respond to the intruders who were entering into this home," Trahern Crews, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter Minnesota chapter, said at Friday night's demonstration. "I can imagine how startled he was when he woke up and then the police is kicking the couch. We're here to demand for the justice we need."

A crowd of about 80 people marched around the Hennepin County Government Center toward Minneapolis City Hall, chanting for justice for Locke and other people who have been shot by police in the state. The short march temporarily stopped Friday evening traffic on several streets.

"Amir Locke did what any natural human being would have done, and that was trying to protect their environment when an unknown intruder [comes in]," said Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence. "They didn't announce who they were."

Other families who have had a relative killed by police also were in attendance, including relatives of Leneal Frazier, who was killed when his vehicle was struck by a Minneapolis police cruiser, and Kobe Dimock Heisler, who died in an encounter with Brooklyn Center police in 2019.