US police publish footage showing officers shooting Black man

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Authorities in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where George Floyd was killed in 2020, released body-cam footage on Thursday showing a 22-year-old African American man being shot by police.

Amir Locke was shot by authorities executing a search warrant on his flat on Wednesday after he retrieved a revolver from beneath a blanket, according to the police.

It took less than ten seconds from the officers' arrival to the rounds being fired. Locke was pronounced dead at the hospital. 

Locke was not identified in the search warrant, according to the local Star Tribune newspaper, but he was tied to a suspect in a homicide investigation.

In a statement released Thursday, the family's attorneys said he "legally possessed a firearm" and had no prior criminal record. His mother told the Star Tribune: "We want justice for our son."

Read more: Former prosecutor in Ahmaud Arbery murder indicted

 

A key is used to unlock the door in the footage, and then a bunch of officers enters while shouting "Police, search warrant!" When police fire, Locke, who was sitting on a couch before getting startled, starts to rise from beneath a blanket with a revolver in his hand.

The family has hired attorney Ben Crump, who has represented several Black people who have been killed by police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, whose deaths in 2020 provoked nationwide protests.

Crump will also have a virtual press conference with the family on Friday morning, according to a release.

Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, assassinated George Floyd in May 2020. Breonna Taylor had been killed two months before when police raided her home after midnight and her boyfriend, mistaking them for burglars, opened fire.

According to the Star Tribune, conversations on police radio before the Minneapolis events Wednesday suggest that the police planned a "no-knock" entrance.

"Like the case of Breonna Taylor, the tragic killing of Amir Locke shows a pattern of no-knock warrants having deadly consequences for Black Americans," said Crump in a statement.

"We will continue pushing for answers in this case so that Amir's grieving family can get the closure they deserve," he added.