Legal Gun Owner Amir Locke Was Sleeping Just Before Minneapolis Police Killed Him

A Black man and legal gun owner in a Minnesota apartment was fatally shot by a police officer this week after a Minneapolis Police SWAT team acted on a no-knock warrant and startled the sleeping man, who appeared to grab his firearm in reaction, video showed.

The encounter that left 22-year-old Amir Locke dead took place in a matter of about 10 seconds. Body-camera video released Thursday night by the Minneapolis Police Department shows the moment officers quietly unlocked an apartment door early Wednesday morning and began shouting at Locke, who was asleep on a friend’s couch and wrapped up in a blanket.

Warning: The below footage is uncensored, and shows the moment police shoot Locke.

“Police! Search warrant!” officers yell in the video as they storm the residence, bright flashlights shining on the couch where Locke is sleeping.

An officer is seen kicking the couch, which appears to jolt Locke awake. Locke then tries to turn around and stand up, still wrapped in a blanket, and can be seen holding a gun. Officer Mark Hanneman fires three gunshots, killing Locke.

Amir Locke’s father, Andre Locke, described his son as a “deep sleeper.”

“Amir was a deep sleeper, 22 years old, he was a deep sleeper, it takes a lot to wake him up,” Andre Locke said at a Friday press conference. “For them to kick the couch and startle him, those officers and that officer aggravated him, almost like they wanted him to reach for something, to take his life.”

At a Thursday evening press conference, interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman said police entered the home Locke was staying in as part of a homicide investigation being conducted by St. Paul police.

“At this point, it’s unclear if or how [Locke] is connected to St. Paul’s investigation,” Huffman said during the press conference.

Attorneys for Locke’s family said the 22-year-old legally possessed his firearm and had no criminal history.

“No lawful gun owner could have survived this situation,” attorney for the family Jeff Storms said at a Friday news conference. “No one could have lived through this.”

The family is also being represented by Ben Crump, who has taken on several high-profile cases of police killings of Black citizens, including George Floyd. Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen on video pressing his knee into the neck of Floyd, killing him. Chauvin was found guilty on all murder charges last year.

“We have a city that refuses to learn,” Storms said about the latest Minneapolis police killing.

Although St. Paul police requested the assistance of MPD for its investigation, the department did not request a no-knock warrant. Instead, MPD insisted it be changed to a no-knock warrant, KARE 11 reported. No-knock warrants have been strongly criticized as dangerous and ineffective, especially following the police killing of Kentucky EMT Breonna Taylor in 2020, who was fatally shot by police after they entered her home without knocking and were met with gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend, who said he didn’t know the intruders were police.

“No-knock warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law-abiding Black citizens,” Crump said at a Friday press conference.

While many gun activist groups, including the National Rifle Association, have remained silent on the killing, Crump thanked the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus for coming to the defense of Locke, a legal gun owner.

“Mr. 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,” Rob Doar, senior vice president of the group, said in a statement.

Karen Wells, Locke’s mother, said during Friday’s press conference that her son loved music and wanted to help out the community’s youth.

“Amir was all about changing the world, changing and giving the youths everything they needed because he was still a youth,” Wells said. “Amir was loved by all, hated by no one.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he plans to review the shooting.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.