Amir Locke to be eulogized at Minneapolis service

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man who was shot by Minneapolis police serving a search warrant, will be eulogized Thursday in the same church that hosted Daunte Wright’s funeral last April.

Locke’s death has provoked an outcry against no-knock warrants, with a push by his family and others to ban them in Minnesota and beyond.

Locke was shot by a SWAT team member shortly before 7 a.m. on Feb. 2 as officers served a search warrant in a St. Paul homicide case. Body camera video shows at least four officers using a key to quietly enter the downtown apartment where he was staying, then shouting their presence. The video shows Locke, wrapped in a comforter, stirring and holding a handgun right before an officer shot him.

Locke wasn’t named in the warrant and did not live at the apartment. Family members called his killing an “execution,” noting the video shows an officer kicking the sofa, and suggested Locke was startled awake and disoriented. They have also pushed back against police saying Locke was shot after he pointed his gun at officers.

The Rev. Al Sharpton will officiate Locke’s funeral at Shiloh Temple International Ministries. It’s the same church where Sharpton, while presiding over Wright’s funeral days after the young Black man was shot by a suburban Minneapolis police officer, decried “the stench of police brutality.”

Locke’s family planned a public viewing at 10 a.m. followed by the funeral service at 11 a.m.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has imposed a moratorium on such warrants while the city reexamines its policy. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating Locke’s shooting.