MINNEAPOLIS — A Hennepin County judge approved the no-knock warrant that led to the police killing of Amir Locke during a raid in downtown Minneapolis last week in order to preserve potential evidence in a St. Paul homicide, according to court documents newly released Thursday.
The stealth entry to execute the search warrant was approved on Feb. 1, the day before Minneapolis SWAT officers stormed into the Bolero Flats apartment yelling "search warrant" without knocking. Locke, 22, was on a couch under a blanket, and stirred after an officer kicked the couch. He had a gun in his right hand and was shot within seconds.
Locke was not the subject of the search warrant, nor were the others who were in the apartment at the time: Locke's older brother and the brother's girlfriend.
The raid stems from the fatal shooting of 38-year-old Otis Elder during an apparent drug transaction on Jan. 10 on a St. Paul street. The latest court filings say Locke's cousin Mekhi Speed and others with him "were attempting to rob [Elder] of money and/or drugs."
Speed was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder on suspicion that he killed Elder. County prosecutors want to certify the 17-year-old Speed to be tried as an adult. He remains in custody ahead of a Feb. 15 court appearance.
Speed was living in a different unit of the Bolero Flats Apartment Homes at 1117 S. Marquette Av., in downtown Minneapolis but had access to the apartment raided by police.
Locke's death has revived intense debate about the use of no-knock search warrants, which critics say unnecessarily escalate police encounters. Thousands of protesters have since taken to the street — and some have walked out of school — to demand justice for Locke and the immediate resignations of Mayor Jacob Frey and Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman.
The no-knock search warrant was approved by Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill, and it explained in standard language that an unannounced entry was "necessary to prevent the loss, destruction, or removal of the objects of said search or to protect the safety of the searchers or the public."
Cahill presided over the widely watched trial of Derek Chauvin, who last year was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
The application made by St. Paul police for the warrant cited numerous concerns about the potential danger that Speed and others with him posed to officers during a raid.
"These suspects have been actively involved in numerous crimes throughout the metro area since at least November 2021 to include robberies, firearm incidents, and fleeing police in a motor vehicle," the application read. "The suspects have been posting videos and photos on Instagram holding several different firearms to include a rifle, possibly the murder weapon."
Carrying out the raid before sunrise as well as without knocking is necessary, the application continued, because this "enables officers to execute the warrant more safely by allowing officers to make entry into the apartment without alerting the subjects inside. This will not only increase officer safety, but it will also decrease the risk for injuries to the suspects and other residents nearby."
Officers collected a wide range of items while inside the apartment including an empty gun case, numerous bags of marijuana, smartphones and clothing.
The sequence of events began last month when officers answered a 911 call in St. Paul's Hamline-Midway neighborhood and found Elder in the street wounded in the back outside a music recording studio in the 500 block of N. Prior Avenue.
As their investigation progressed last week, St. Paul police filed standard applications for search warrant affidavits for three Bolero Flats apartments. Detectives were forced to resubmit the requests after the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) insisted on a no-knock entry.
The MPD would not have agreed to execute the search in its jurisdiction otherwise, according to a law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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