The Minneapolis Police Department is once again in the eye of controversy after shooting and killing Amir Locke while serving a warrant on Wednesday morning.
The circumstances around the serving of the warrant and the shooting itself has many civil rights advocates calling out the practices of the MPD once again. Attorney Ben Crump is representing the family and Friday said shocked that police would use a high-risk, no-knock warrant for a warrant seeking property and not the arrest of an individual. Crump also compared the death of Locke with the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Taylor was also shot by police forced their way into an apartment.
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According to his family Locke, who has no criminal record in Minnesota, was in legal possession of a firearm he was holding at the time of his shooting, and was not the focus of the warrant.
WCCO host Henry Lake, after seeing the body camera footage released by the City of Minneapolis Thursday, shared his thoughts on the shooting. Lake posted to Twitter following the Timberwolves game that he just couldn’t stop thinking about the shooting.
“I'm sick and tired of these type of situations happening,” said Lake. “Black men have died with guns, with knives, with cell phones, with nothing. There have been many times where people have been killed in cold blood, and, oh I misidentified, I thought the cellphone was a gun.”
Lake, who is originally from North Minneapolis, says the city has been stained at this point.
“We are back in a bad place and whether we like it or not, our reputation, the Minneapolis Police Department's reputation, will continue to be stained. Because we keep racking up incidents where people are dead.”
The shooting of Locke follows the death of George Floyd in 2020 in South Minneapolis, and he death of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center in April of 2021. Lake, in an impassioned plea, says it is long past time for changes.
“I said it the last two summers and I want everybody to hear this,” says Lake who hosts 9:00pm-1:00am on WCCO. “When we were the epicenter of protest and the world was watching, and people talked about reform, reform, reform, and we said we need real measures. I said it then, I said it this last summer and I'm going to say it again. Stop playing games with the people!”
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Lake continues by saying it’s not a choice between citizens and police. It’s possible to protect both.
“We want real reform. Stop trying to stave off progress and transparency, because you feel like you can play political games. Stop playing political games with people that care. If you do not want to do right by the people, then you need to step down and step aside. But to be a coward, and not own up to, we haven't done enough. Stop. We can both back the blue and back the people.
“This this doesn't have to be, I have to be over here or I have to be over there. Why can't you be everywhere? My life matters. The police officer's life matters. Give them the tools that they need to do the job and give us what we need. But you're playing these political games. Nobody's trying to hear that man. And then you get you get surprised when people get outraged.”
You can listen to all of Henry Lake’s take on the shooting and situation in Minneapolis below.