Minneapolis Police Department Releases Body Cam Footage in Fatal Officer Involved Shooting

(KNSI) — Body camera footage released by the Minneapolis Police Department shows the moments leading up to and the fatal shooting of a man in a downtown apartment building Wednesday morning.

The Minneapolis Police Department said the SWAT team was executing a search warrant on behalf of the St. Paul Police Department at the time of the shooting. Details of the warrant have not officially been unsealed, but initial reports said the warrant was connected to a homicide in St. Paul.

Footage released Thursday night shows officers entering an apartment at the Bolero Flats apartment building at 6:48 a.m. February 2nd. An officer can be seen quietly opening the door to the unit with a key, then shouts of “Police! Search warrant! Get on the ground! Show me your hands!” can be heard. An officer is also seen kicking a couch, where 22-year-old Amir Locke was lying wrapped in a blanket. Footage shows Locke had not fully emerged from the blanket before the shots were fired. A still photograph, which can be seen below, shows Locke’s face barely visible, but his hand was partially sticking out of the blanket, and it is apparent he is holding a gun. Next, three shots can be heard, and the video ends.

Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman says Locke had the gun pointed in the direction of officers. The still photo, released by the MPD, shows the gun appears to be pointed toward the ground with Locke’s finger next to the barrel and off the trigger.

The Minneapolis Police Department confirmed at a news conference Thursday night that Locke was not named on the warrant issued for three separate units inside the same apartment building. Family and friends say the police were not looking for Locke, who had a permit to carry. He also reportedly did not live at that apartment, but it’s not known why he was there.

Mayor Jacob Frey said the city was looking for answers to why this happened “as quickly as possible and in transparent fashion” in cooperation with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Huffman says the officer, who KNSI is not publicly naming as he has not been charged with any crime, has been with the department since 2015. She said he was in a tough position that morning as “The still shot shows the image of the firearm in the subject’s hands, at the best possible moment when the lighting was fully on him. That’s the moment when the officer had to make a split-second decision to assess the circumstances and to determine whether he felt like there was an articulable threat, that the threat was of imminent harm, great bodily harm or death, and that he needed to take action right then to protect himself and his partners.”

The city released the officer’s personnel records which showed three complaints filed against him but no disciplinary actions. Officials did not elaborate on the nature of the complaints. A fourth complaint, the nature of which is not known, was filed in 2018 and is still open.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd, is representing the Locke family. Crump compared this shooting to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, who was shot as officers served a no-knock warrant at her home in Kentucky in 2020.

Locke’s mother declined to comment on the matter.

You can see the bodycam footage by clicking here. It is graphic and contains strong language.