The family of a young man shot and killed by Minneapolis Police in a downtown apartment last year is filing a civil lawsuit.
22-year-old Amir Locke was killed by Minneapolis police after they had entered a downtown apartment on a no-knock warrant. He 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. His mother, Karen Wells says that sloppy police work is to blame for her child's death.
"So you knew somebody was up underneath that blanket. You just didn't know who it was because you did sloppy homework. Because if you boot up or suit up SWAT, you're supposed to know who is on the other side of that door when you're going up in there."
No-knock warrants have been limited to specific types of cases in Minneapolis. Locke's family is working with the Legislature to ban no-knock warrants statewide.
The lawsuit specifically names the officer who shot Locke, Mark Hanneman, who was never charged in the case.