Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara is speaking out for the first time on the reassignment of a police officer who had shot and killed a man while executing a no-knock warrant in 2022.
Sergeant Mark Hanneman had been leading use-of-force training within the department, but last month was reassigned to the department's new wellness unit following public outcry.
O'Hara, speaking with WCCO's Adam and Jordana, explained the department's thought process.
"That's the assumption underneath that we, you know, how could we possibly have this person teaching something to deal with around reform? So, it doesn't even consider the possibility that this person could be incredibly dedicated, to try and make sure this doesn't happen again to anyone else," says O'Hara.
It was more than three years ago when 22-year-old Amir Locke was shot and killed inside a Minneapolis apartment.
O'Hara says that outcry from the public led to his decision to reassign Sergeant Mark Hanneman to the department's new wellness unit.
"At this point, it is a distraction to have him remain in this role, essentially as a political pawn, as all this stuff is going on, and we are readjusting and figuring out how we're gonna finish the the last day of training," O'Hara said on WCCO Tuesday. "Because even before all this stuff broke, he already taught the entire department two out of the three days of the the new use of force training."
O'Hara called the February 2, 2022 shooting of Amir Locke a tragedy. It came seven months before O'Hara became Chief of Police.
Community groups came out challenging the Minneapolis Police Department over their choice to promote Hanneman.
"If Officer Mark Hanneman understood how to properly use use-of-force in the kind of situation that Amir Lock found himself in, Amir would still be alive today," civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong said during a protest on July 22.
The 22-year-old Locke was killed by Minneapolis police after they had entered a downtown apartment on a no-knock warrant.
Locke was sleeping on the couch, woke up, and grabbed a gun, which he was licensed to carry. Locke was not the suspect police were looking for, but is seen clearly on video holding a gun.
Then Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison declined to charge the officers involved in Locke's shooting.
Since the shooting, Minneapolis has updated their policies on no-knock warrants, and the legislature also passed new guidance banning or significantly limiting the practice statewide.