The lonesome death of Amir Locke: An update

It turns out that the St. Paul Police Department was seeking to arrest 17-year old Mekhi C. Speed in a pending homicide case when it sought the search warrant that the Minneapolis Police Department executed in the form of a no-knock raid. The raid resulted in the death of Amir Locke, who himself was nothing more than an innocent bystander sleeping with a handgun when the police conducted the raid. Yesterday a joint law enforcement team apprehended an armed Speed in Winona, Minnesota.

Minneapolis police executed three search warrants in the same downtown Minneapolis building. Each of the searches resulted in the seizure of evidence supporting the case against Speed. Locke was apparently Speed’s cousin. Locke was sleeping in the apartment of Speed’s brother and the brother’s girlfriend.

The Star Tribune story on Speed’s arrest does a good job of setting out Speed’s criminal record. CBS Minnesota story on Speed’s arrest is here. KARE 11’s is here.

The MPD officer who shot Locke in the course of the raid may or may not bear legal culpability. As Speed’s arrest makes clear, we do not have all the relevant facts. As of today, for example, the search warrant documents remain sealed.

You can see why the Minneapolis police might have wanted a no-knock warrant. For Speed’s background, I refer readers to the Twitter thread posted by KARE 11 reporter/producer Brandon Stahl below. Apart from Speed himself, the culprit at the heart of this tragic chain of events is Minnesota’s pathetic criminal justice system.

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