Minneapolis Police Under Fire For Killing Man Under Blanket With Gun By His Side, Man Had No Warrent On Him

MINNEAPOLIS — Late Thursday, Minneapolis police released a portion of police-worn body camera footage from the fatal shooting of Amir Locke on Wednesday morning.

The video, which is graphic in nature, shows slow motion and regular speed footage of police using a key to enter an apartment, yell "police" and order a subject under a blanket on a sofa to show their hands and get on the ground before gunshots are fired.

The entire incident transpires in a matter of seconds.

Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman and Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the release of the footage at a press conference Thursday night, stating that their first priority was to give Locke's family a chance to see the video before it was made public.

During the press conference, Huffman explained the tactics police used throughout the video. She said the footage shows the barrel of a gun in the hands of the person under the blanket, leading the officer to "make a split-second decision to assess the circumstances, and determine whether he felt like there was ... a threat."

Huffman also publicly acknowledged that Locke was not named on the warrant that officers were executing at the residence that day, and said it's unclear if he had any connection to the original homicide investigation by the St. Paul Police Department.

The press conference was interrupted by civil rights attorney and former Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy Armstrong, who questioned why Minneapolis police needed to be involved in executing a search warrant for another community. Levy Armstrong also publicly questioned her own future involvement as co-chair of the mayor's workgroup working toward police accountability and demanded leadership and accountability from Mayor Frey and Interim Chief Huffman.