The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an armed 22-year-old Amir Locke during a Feb. 2 SWAT raid on a downtown apartment in early February will not be charged with a crime, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Wednesday.
Locke was not the subject of the warrant the SWAT team was serving, WCCO reports.
"After a thorough review of all available evidence ... there is insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges in this case," a statement from Freeman and Ellison read.
A video released shortly after the shooting showed several SWAT officers rushing into the apartment at about 7 a.m. while shouting "Search warrant!" in connection with a homicide investigation in St. Paul that did not involve Locke, the Star-Tribune reports.
Officer Mark Hanneman then shot Locke, who was staying with a cousin, within seconds as he stirred beneath a blanket on a couch with a gun visible in his hand.
The day after the shooting, Minneapolis PD released video of the incident. In a still image broadcast on WCCO and provide by the Minneapolis PD, a semi-automatic pistol is clearly in Locke's hand.
"This constitutes a specifically articulable threat," Freeman and Ellison noted. "Officer Hanneman perceived that Mr. Locke's movements and production of a firearm presented a threat of death or great bodily harm that was reasonably likely to occur, and to which the officers had to respond without delay."
Locke's cousin, 17-year-old Mekhi Speed, and another teenager have been charged with the St. Paul killing in January that prompted the raid that ended with Locke being shot.
