Washington, April 7 – The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot African-American man Amir Locke during an unannounced search in February this year will not be charged, Minnesota prosecutors said the previous day.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin District Attorney Michael Freeman said they lack sufficient evidence to press charges in the case, USA Today reported.
“In particular, the state would not be able to disprove beyond reasonable doubt any of the elements of the statute … authorizing the use of force,” Ellison and Freeman said in a joint official statement.
Officer Mark Hanneman shot Locke three times in less than 10 seconds after a SWAT team raided his home during a homicide raid in St. Paul, the state capital, on the day of the shooting.
However, Locke was not listed on the warrant, the police department admitted after the shooting.
Karen Wells called her son’s death unfair and expressed her frustration with Hanneman at a news conference in New York with family attorney Ben Crump and civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
“You are guilty,” Wells warned, referring to the white cop. “I will not give up,” he emphasized.
The 22-year-old had no criminal record and was aiming to set up a foundation where he could help vulnerable and low-income people, the newspaper noted.
Prosecutors were handling the criminal case of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, also an African American, by suffocation in May 2020, an event that sparked a wave of anti-racist protests and anti-police brutality in the country.
Locke’s murder also sparked demonstrations in that city for several days.
Civil rights groups, including the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Locke’s family and their attorneys called for Hanneman’s release.
Attorney Crump stated that “the tragic death of Amir Locke sets a pattern of unannounced arrest warrants that have dire consequences for black Americans.”
Hanneman, who was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, was hired in 2015 and had three grievances against him that ended with no disciplinary action, according to records released by the city.
A fourth indictment from 2018 remains open, a database compiled by the activist group United Communities Against Police Brutality revealed. (LP)
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