Attorneys Ben Crump, Jeff Storms and Tony Romanucci addressed reporters alongside Locke’s parents during a virtual press conference two days after Locke’s death. The method officers used for executing the warrant was swiftly condemned and compared with the no-knock warrant served nearly two years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, which resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor.
Romanucci described the events leading up to Locke’s death as an “absolute disgusting violation of civil rights.”
“What happened here, folks, is that Amir was doomed to die,” Romanucci said. “Before the police officers walked in that door, he was going to die.”
City officials said officers with the MPD’s SWAT unit executed the search warrant on behalf of the St. Paul Police Department shortly before 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday. While officials said police “loudly and repeatedly announced their presence,” body camera footage released Thursday night showed officers identifying themselves after unlocking and going into the unit.
A few seconds after entering the apartment, officers “encountered a male who was armed with a handgun pointed in the direction of officers,” city officials said in a Wednesday news release. The man inside the apartment, who was later identified as Locke, was shot and taken to a nearby medical center, where he died.
Locke was described by his family’s attorneys as an individual with no criminal history who had “several family members in law enforcement.” He was in legal possession of his firearm at the time of his death, his family said.
Citing “all available information,” Crump’s legal team said Locke was not the target of the warrant served Wednesday morning.
Crump said Friday that he was “shocked” by the events that led to Locke’s death. He pointed to changes the MPD made to its no-knock policy in the wake of Taylor’s death, which went into effect in the fall of 2020.
“If we learned anything from Breonna Taylor, it is that no-knock warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law-abiding Black citizens. That’s what we know. That’s what the statistics bear out,” Crump said.
Crump described the police report released after Locke’s death as “erroneous.”
“They, we can only conclude, were trying to assassinate the character of Amir Locke to try to justify their unjustifiable act of executing this no-knock warrant,” he said.
Crump went on to point to a press release the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus (MGOC) released earlier Friday in support of Locke. In the release, MGOC Chair Bryan Strawser pointed to how Locke “appears to be sleeping” in the released body camera footage as police enter his apartment.
MGOC Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs Rob Doar said Locke “did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening.” Doar described Locke’s death as “completely avoidable” and as “yet another example where a no-knock warrant has resulted in the death of an innocent person.”
Storms commended the MGOC for its words of support for Locke when he addressed reporters on Friday.
“It’s clear to anyone that no lawful gun owner could have survived this situation. No one could have lived through this,” Storms said. He said Locke was “awoken from a slumber” and “given no opportunity to survive, to live.”
Romanucci alleged the MPD officers “committed not one error, not two, but several violations of MPD policy.” He detailed the events as they unraveled in the body camera footage and said Locke “had no choice.”
“This tragedy could have been averted,” Romanucci said. “But because they executed in the manner in which they did, Amir was doomed to die.”
The MPD declined Newsweek’s request for comment, citing the ongoing and independent nature of the investigation into the incident that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is conducting.
Update 2/4/2022 2 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
