Protests Continue in Minneapolis Over Police Killing of Amir Locke

A Minneapolis SWAT team entered an apartment on a no-knock warrant about 6:48am on Feb. 2, and in less than 10 seconds, a 22-year-old Black man had been fatally shot. Outrage and protests have followed the death of Amir Locke at the hands of the authorities, who were investigating the Jan. 10 killing of Otis Elder when they entered the unit. On Tuesday, Locke's 17-year-old cousin was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder in Elder's death, the AP reports. Authorities say surveillance video shows the teen was at the scene of Elder's fatal shooting, and that he lives with his mom in an apartment near unit 701, the unit in which Locke was shot. Another person seen on the surveillance video also lives in the building, prosecutors say, and police obtained search warrants for all three apartments. Locke was not named in the warrants. More on his death:

• What happened? Locke was asleep on the couch under a blanket when police entered; they kicked the couch, and Locke's family says he was startled and got up holding a gun he legally owned and was shot, CNN reports.
• Protests: Days of protests have been going on in Minneapolis, with protesters chanting not just Locke's name but the names of other Black men killed by police. Hundreds of students staged a walk-out of classes Tuesday to protest no-knock warrants. Protesters want Minneapolis's interim police chief removed, and the officer who shot Locke fired, NPR reports.
• Charges? The Minnesota attorney general's office says criminal charges will be considered in Locke's death, the Hill reports. "Amir Locke's life mattered," a county attorney says. "He was only 22 years old and had his whole life ahead of him."
• A ruined future: Locke was supposed to be moving to Dallas this week to be near his mom, family members say, per WFAA. "Never would I have imagined standing up here and talking about the execution of my son by the Minneapolis Police Department. He was at a sleepover at his cousin’s place," she says.
• No-knock warrants: No-knock warrants, which were also implicated in the death of Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, "shouldn’t exist in our society," says one civil rights lawyer. "They are inherently dangerous."

(More Minneapolis stories.)