MINNEAPOLIS — A lawsuit accusing a Minneapolis police officer and the city of Minneapolis of violating the constitutional rights of Amir Locke is moving forward.
In 2023, Locke's family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging Officer Mark Hanneman violated Locke's rights when he was fatally shot during the execution of a no-knock warrant, a year earlier.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Eric C. Tostrud denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit. "Plaintiffs allege facts plausibly showing that Officer Hanneman's use of force violated Amir's clearly established Fourth Amendment rights. As presented at this stage, the body-worn-camera videos show Amir was armed, but they do not conclusively establish that Amir's actions justified the use of deadly force," the court ruling stated.
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The family's lawsuit details what their legal team describes as the Minneapolis Police Department's history of excessive force when executing no-knock warrants, saying Black residents and other people of color are particularly victimized.
Amir Locke was sleeping on a couch inside the Bolero Flats apartments in downtown Minneapolis on the morning of February 2, 2022, when SWAT officers burst in looking for Locke's cousin, who was a suspect in a St. Paul murder. He died a mere nine seconds later after officers said he reached for a weapon.
Then-Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman declined to file charges against Hanneman or any other officer, saying there was insufficient admissible evidence "to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota's use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer Hanneman."
Locke's family is seeking compensatory, special, and punitive damages and costs in an amount to be determined by a federal jury.
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