Mark Hanneman, the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Amir Locke, a 22 year old Black man, during an unrelated no-knock raid in February, will not be charged.
April 6, 2022 - Written by S.J.
Mark Hanneman, the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Amir Locke, a 22 year old Black man, during an unrelated no-knock raid in February, will not be charged.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a press release with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman this morning outlining the decision, “After a thorough review of all available evidence, however, there is insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges in this case. Specifically, the State would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota’s use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force. Nor would the State be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal charge against any other officer involved in the decision-making that led to the death of Amir Locke.”
Early in the morning on February 2, 2022, a SWAT team of nine Minneapolis police officers broke into an apartment home while serving a no-knock warrant. The raid woke Locke, who had been asleep on the couch. The exchange that followed, which lasted less than 10 seconds, resulted in Officer Hanneman firing his gun three times, killing Locke. As it turns out, Locke was not in any way connected with the warrant being served. He was not named in the warrant, nor was he a suspect in the related case.
"Current law only allows us to review the case from the perspective of a 'reasonable police officer,’” Ellison explained during a virtual statement. “It would be unethical for us to file charges in a case in which we know that we will not be able to prevail because the law does not support the charges."
According to court documents, Locke’s murder is not the first instance that Hanneman, the “reasonable police officer” in question, has made seemingly unreasonable choices while on the job.
In 2013 Hanneman, who was working as a police officer in McLeod County at the time, arrived on the scene of a traffic stop. With no probable cause, Hanneman subjected the driver, Trevor Coon, to a series of field sobriety and drug recognition tests–all of which he passed. Hanneman then spent several additional hours searching Coon’s vehicle before releasing him. Coon was eventually released with no charges and with no car, as Hanneman opted to have the vehicle impounded.
In 2020 Hanneman conducted an unconstitutional search of a man as part of a warrant in which the man, much like Locke, was not actually named. Even though a judge deemed the search to be unjustified, Hanneman was never disciplined for his actions.
“Stop the rhetoric that police officers need more training…” Locke’s aunt, Linda Tyler, pleaded during her nephew’s funeral. “If you think being a police officer is a difficult profession, try being a Black man.”