WASHINGTON, United States — The parents of a
young Black man shot dead by police said Friday that Minneapolis officers
"executed" their son and gave him no chance of survival.
اضافة اعلان
Authorities in the northern
US city, still
reeling by the police murder of George Floyd in 2020, said Amir Locke, 22, was
shot Wednesday by officers carrying out a search warrant on the apartment he
was in.
In the video, an officer uses a key to
unlock the door and then a group of officers enter while shouting "Police,
search warrant!"
Locke, who was on a couch, starts to rise
from beneath a blanket, with a gun in his hand, when police fire.
The total time between the officers'
entrance and the shots fired was less than ten seconds.
Locke was pronounced dead at hospital.
"A mother should never have to see her
child executed in that type of manner," said Locke's mother, Karen Wells,
during a press conference, adding she would fight until her son "gets
justice."
Locke's father, Andre Locke, said he watched
the video with "disbelief and anger."
He described his son, who he stressed had no
criminal record and held a gun permit, as a "deep sleeper."
"He did what any reasonable,
law-abiding citizen would do, white or Black," Locke said.
He said police could have done
"anything differently," including ordering his son to drop his weapon
before opening fire.
"It seemed that he didn't have a
chance," Locke said.
'Locke's life mattered'
Locke's death has reopened the wounds caused
by the
killing of Floyd in May 2020, when white ex-Minneapolis police officer
Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
To ease tensions now, Minnesota state
attorney general
Keith Ellison promised to conduct a "fair and
thorough" investigation of the events.
"Amir Locke's life mattered," he
said, alluding to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Without predicting the outcome of the
investigation, Minnesota's Democratic governor Tim Walz said the circumstances
of Locke's death "illustrate the need for further reform" on the
police force beyond the changes made after Floyd's death, particularly the
execution of search warrants.
The search warrant at the heart of the
tragedy had not named Locke but said he was related to a suspect in a homicide
investigation in the neighboring city of Saint Paul.
The warrant allowed officers to enter
unannounced, according to Minneapolis police chief Amelia Huffman, speaking to
MPR radio.
These so-called "no-knock"
warrants have been at the center of several cases of police violence, including
the shooting in March 2020 of Breonna Taylor, whose death along with Floyd's
sparked massive national antiracism protests the summer of that year.
Minnesota has restricted the use of no-knock
warrants since the protests.
Locke's family has retained lawyer
Ben Crump, who has represented multiple Black victims of police violence, including
Floyd and Taylor's families.
"No-knock raids... continue to take the
lives of innocent Black people," Crump said.
Locke had bought a gun because he was a
delivery driver and wanted to be able to protect himself, according to the
attorney.
"African Americans, like any other
American citizen, (have) a right to the Second Amendment," said Crump,
referring to the US constitutional right to bear arms.
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