Amir Locke, a Minneapolis officer who was shot and killed by police officers, stormed the apartment where Locke was asleep before dawn on February 2nd shouting orders. The officers claimed they did this to reduce the chance of injuries.
This tactic is questionable even if police are certain that no criminal suspects reside in the residence they’re trying to invade. They are reckless when they don’t know who may be there. This is especially true in a country with citizens having a constitutional right of self-defense.
Locke was 22 years old and an aspiring rapper. He was in Dallas planning to move there, but he was staying at his cousin. He was woken up by Minneapolis SWAT officers as he lay on the couch of his cousin. They were helping St. Paul Police Department with a search warrant that sought evidence to support a murder investigation. Locke wasn’t a suspect.
Body camera video shows the officers quietly unlocking the door to the apartment at 6:48 a.m. before charging in while shouting “police—search warrant!” Get on the ground! Locke, who is still asleep under his blanket, is roused by an officer.
Officer Mark Hanneman sees Locke holding a gun and immediately fires three shots. Since the cops arrived at the apartment, nine seconds had passed.
Minneapolis Police Department said Locke pointed his weapon “in the direction” of officers. The video however shows Locke actually pointing his gun towards the ground with Locke’s index finger touching the barrel, not the trigger.
Benjamin Crump who represented Locke’s family described the situation as follows: “Strange people broke into his house and awakened him. He reached for his gun, which he was entitled to under Section 2 of the Constitution, to defend himself.” Locke’s father said “Amir did what…any reasonable, law-abiding citizen would do to protect himself.”
Rob Doar was a vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. Doar stated that Locke did the right thing in these confusing circumstances. “He sought legal protection for himself while trying to grasp what was happening.”
Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman suggested that Hanneman’s decision to shoot Locke was likewise reasonable in the circumstances. She said that Hanneman had to make an instant decision based on whether he felt he was able to act immediately to save himself and his colleagues.
This scenario is not new. It has been played out over and over in many cities throughout the United States for many years. Officers who break into homes in the hope of a sudden and overwhelming show of force that will lower injury risk can be misinterpreted as violent criminals.
Breonna Taylor was 26 years old and unarmed. Like Locke, she had no criminal history. Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, responded to Taylor’s middle-of-the night home invasion with a firearm and fired a shot at intruders. Taylor was killed.
Walker was originally charged by local prosecutors with the attempted murder of an officer. But, they dropped this charge after a few months. They implicitly recognized Walker had strong self defense claims. The prosecutors also concluded that Taylor was not a valid suspect and that the Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron agreed that Taylor had acted in self defense.
Reformers often propose restricting or banning no-knock warrants to avoid such lethal encounters. However, the Taylor case is a clear example of how ineffective this approach can be.
Taylor’s door was pounded by Louisville police officers for approximately 30 seconds, before they broke in. Walker and Taylor were still unaware that Walker was a police officer.
We need to fundamentally reexamine “dynamic entry” strategies. They should not be deployed in situations of life-or-death emergency. It invites tragedies such as Amir Locke’s death by routinely using them during police searches.
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