MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minneapolis mayor imposed a moratorium on no-knock warrants Friday, two days after a SWAT team entered a downtown apartment and killed Amir Locke, a Black man who his parents said was “executed” after he was startled from a deep sleep and reached for a legal firearm to protect himself.
Mayor Jacob Frey said the moratorium is effective immediately and will ban requests for and the execution of warrants in which police do not announce themselves.
Frey said that while the moratorium is in place, he and police leadership will work with national experts to review the department’s policy on no-knock warrants and suggest revisions.
“No matter what information comes to light, it won’t change the fact that Amir Locke’s life was cut short,” Frey said in a statement.
Locke’s parents, Andre Locke and Karen Wells, described him Friday as respectful, including to police, and said some of their relatives work in law enforcement. Wells said the couple coached their son on how to act and do “what they needed to do whenever they encountered police officers” because of the danger to “unarmed Black males.”