Andre Locke and Karen Wells, the parents of 22-year-old Amir Locke who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police seconds after he was awoken by officers executing a no-knock warrant at the Balero Flats apartment building early Wednesday morning, remembered their son on Friday as a "good kid" who aspired make it in the music industry.
"He enjoyed learning and asking questions," Andre said. "He enjoyed wanting to be apart of the music industry. He wanted to change lives."
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Amir, who Andre and Karen said was just one week away from moving to Texas, also came from a family with deep law enforcement roots.
"I have cousins that are sheriffs in Chicago," added Andre. "I have cousins that have a cousin that's a federal law enforcement agent who work with the CIA, with the Pentagon, and the Department of Homeland Security. He was Amir's mentor."
Now Amir's family is seeking justice following an early morning raid Wednesday by Minneapolis police. Body camera footage released Thursday evening shows Locke lying on a couch underneath blankets, and as police enter the room, he begins to get up with a visible firearm in his hands.
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It is at this point that the officer, identified by the City of Minneapolis as Mark Hanneman, shoots him.
"Amir was doomed to die," said Tony Romanucci, who represented George Floyd's family in their civil rights case against the City of Minneapolis. "Before the police officers walked in that door, he was going to die. He did not know he was going to die, but because he was a lawful gun owner and because he was of color, he was going to die."
Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Locke's family, said he was shocked that police would use a high-risk, no-knock warrant for a warrant seeking property and not the arrest of an individual.
"I know that Minenapolis was one of the cities that pledged after Breonna Taylor was unjustly, unnecessarily, and unconstitutionally killed to stop no-knock warrants. They were going to abolish them," Crump said. "But yet, we have this happen to Amir Locke. If we learned anything from Breonna Taylor it is that no knock warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law abiding Black citizens."
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Crump then blasted the Minneapolis Police Department for their immediate handling of Amir's killing in the hours after it happened.
"They said Amir was the subject of a search warrant, when they know that was not the case," Crump said. "Why would they put that out there? It's the old playbook even used even way back with Trayvon Martin where after you assassinate our children, then you assassinate their character."
Amir Locke's mother, Karen Wells, vowed to seek justice.
"I will make sure that as long as I'm on this side of this world, I'm going fight everyday throughout the day to make sure that Amir Rahkare Locke gets justice for being executed by the MPD," Wells said. "My son didn't deserve it. The rest of the Black males in this city and across this nation didn't deserve it. My son is going to be the face and voice for those who can't speak."
Romanucci demanded the City of Minneapolis and MPD show immediate transparency with the investigation.
"We are asking Minneapolis and St. Paul to be transparent with us right now," he said. "If they are not, they will force us to do what we need to do to obtain the information we need in order to find the truth."