The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will not pursue charges against the officers involved in the February shooting of Amir Rahkare Locke, a 22-year-old Black man who was fatally shot within seconds of Minneapolis police entering an apartment with a no-knock warrant for a case that had nothing to do with him.
“Amir Locke’s life mattered,” Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a Wednesday statement. “After a thorough review of all available evidence, however, there is insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges in this case. Specifically, the State would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota’s use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer [Mark] Hanneman.”
“Nor would the State be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal charge against any other officer involved in the decision-making that led to the death of Amir Locke,” the statement added.
Freeman and Ellison also noted they had already met with the Locke family to deliver the news. Hanneman, the officer who shot and killed Locke, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But his bosses wasted little time in responding internally, with a Minneapolis spokesperson telling The Daily Beast Wednesday that he was no longer on leave and is already back on duty.
“The family of Amir Locke is deeply disappointed by the decision not to criminally charge Minneapolis Police Officer Mark Hanneman,” lawyers representing the Locke family, including Ben Crump, said in a statement to The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “The family and its legal team are firmly committed to their continued fight for justice in the civil court system, in fiercely advocating for the passage of local and national legislation, and taking every other step necessary to ensure accountability for all those responsible for needlessly cutting Amir’s life far too short.”
The decision not to press charges against the officers quickly raised fresh ire in Minneapolis, a metropolitan area stained by high-profile killings of Black men at the hands of law enforcement in recent years. It came as the city was still grappling with demands for racial justice after three former Minneapolis police officers were convicted in a federal trial over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
“He did everything right. He was leading an exemplary life. He had a legal license [to carry a gun]. He was still killed,” Daphne Brown, a 50-something social-justice strategist and professor in St. Paul, told The Daily Beast. “None of that protected him. We have no protection.”
Authorities have conceded that Locke was not the intended subject of the St. Paul homicide investigation that prompted a Minneapolis SWAT team to execute a no-knock search warrant at the Balero Flats apartment building around 7 a.m. on Feb. 2.
Police records made public in March show that St. Paul police asked for search warrants to be conducted in Minneapolis for three apartments, including the one where Locke was shot. Multiple local outlets have reported that St. Paul cops did not ask for the highly controversial no-knock procedure—one they themselves have avoided in recent years—only for their colleagues in Minneapolis to insist on one, going so far as to claim it would actually improve safety.
During a Wednesday press conference, Rev. Al Sharpton said that the fight was not over, and that he stood with the Locke family in calling for a federal investigation into the shooting.
Locke’s mother, Karen Wells, stressed that she was not shocked at all about the decision because, to her, it was just another example of “Minnesota’s true colors.”
“I’m not going to give up,” Wells added. “I am not disappointed, I am disgusted with the city of Minneapolis.”
Toshira Garraway, who founded the group Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence after her fiancé was killed by cops in St. Paul, called the decision not to charge the officers in Locke’s death “a disgrace.”
“This is horrific, this is inhumane,” she told The Daily Beast on Wednesday, adding, \"This just proves that this is how Minneapolis treats Black people.”
Garraway said that she had worked closely with Locke’s family since his death, and that she was “heartbroken” to learn that they had joined the growing group of people who felt unable to receive justice in Minneapolis.
“Amir’s death is not just heartbreaking for the family. It’s heartbreaking for all of us,” she added, breaking into tears. “I am not shocked by the decision today, but I am so sad and hurt. It’s just another slap in the face in the community.”
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