Before 7 a.m. on the morning of February 2^nd, Minneapolis police officers fatally shot 22-year-old Amir Locke. The officers were executing a no-knock warrant, a search warrant which allows police to enter a private residence without knocking. Bodycam footage shows the police yelling as they entered the apartment where Locke was sleeping under a blanket on the couch. In the nine seconds between the officers entering the apartment and killing him, Locke, a Black man, is seen waking up and facing the officers with a legally-possessed gun in his hand. His finger was on the barrel, not on the trigger. The officer who killed him, Mark Hanneman, entered the situation alert and prepared; Locke was asleep, surprised, and likely scared. Locke’s death was unnecessary and unjust.

Officer Hanneman has had three previous complaints against him dismissed without discipline.

Protestors rallied in Minneapolis on February 5^th, chanting “No justice, no peace” and demanding both a permanent ban on no-knock warrants and the dismissal and arrest of the officers involved in the shooting. Had the officers knocked on the door before entering, or waited longer before shooting, the warning may have prevented Locke from startling at the officers’ sudden intrusion into the apartment and the gun may never have been aimed in their direction.

It was clear that “when Amir grabbed the gun he [clearly] grabbed it in such a manner that he did not know whether or not he would shoot,” said Jeff Storms, the lawyer representing Locke’s family. “Amir utilized good trigger discipline and the officer didn’t.”

Mayor Jacob Frey did respond to the incident by temporarily suspending the use of no-knock warrants; however, a permanent decision has not been made.

This shooting is one of many incidents involving the death of a Black man or woman at an American police officer’s hands. Locke’s death comes two years after the death of George Floyd, also in Minneapolis, which sparked protests around the world. Breonna Taylor, killed the same year as Floyd, also died as a result of police misconduct via a no-knock warrant. The trial for Brett Hankison, Breonna Taylor’s killer, is set to take place this month – almost two years after her death.

“Amir Locke was no threat to the police officers who killed him,” said Cynthia Wilson, the president of the Minneapolis N.A.A.C.P. “There was not enough time between when the officers entered and woke him for him to become a threat.”

This fatal shooting demonstrates the necessity of addressing the issues behind no-knock warrants. It seems clear that these warrants make innocent people more likely to be killed, so it is difficult to understand why their use is so common; the warrant which led to Locke’s death is the 11^th no-knock warrant the Minneapolis police department has issued in 2022.

Locke’s killing also casts aspersions on police officers who have had numerous complaints dropped. Both Mark Hanneman and Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd, had received multiple previous complaints which were subsequently dropped. This speaks to a need to take complaints more seriously, for example by placing stricter restrictions on the duties of officers who have received multiple complaints.

As the city of Minneapolis, and much of the world with it, remains in outrage about these events, city officials and the state and federal government must respond to the ongoing issue of Black and African-American deaths at the hands of police officers in the United States. This issue must be dealt with in a real and meaningful way so that one day, we will see the last death of this kind.